Florida Republicans condemn women’s Olympic boxing result as questions swirl over gender test issue

Culture wars are part of the Paris Olympiad this year, and that unsurprisingly includes a controversial boxing match.

In the wake of Italy’s Angela Carini forfeiting her fight against Algerian Imane Khelif after suffering what seemed like a broken nose in the fight’s earliest moments, some of Florida’s most prominent Republicans are railing against the inclusion of the North African pugilist who has been banned from previous events for having too much testosterone in her body.

“This is what (Joe) Biden & (Kamala) Harris want for America — a dangerous place where the lives and dreams of our daughters and granddaughters are crushed because Democrats allow biological men to compete in women’s sports — and, in this case, literally beat them down. This is the point of the Biden-Harris Title IX change that just took effect & I’m fighting like hell to reverse it,” said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan suddenly have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris after years of amateur competition. Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

Lin begins her Paris run Friday.

“Biden-Harris admin is even trying to strip $$ for school lunches for poor kids from schools who don’t embrace gender ideology,” Ron DeSantis said on social media. “Biden-Harris elevate the ‘right’ of a male athlete to compete against women over the rights of women athletes to compete with fairness and integrity.”

The International Boxing Association (IBA) issued a statement Wednesday in which it claimed Khelif and Lin did not have a “testosterone examination” last year but were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential,” refusing to explain it.

The IBA, however, has been banned from the past two Olympics because of years of governance problems, a lack of financial transparency and many perceived instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.

“As a former collegiate swimmer, I know firsthand that we must protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports,” added Nick Primrose, a candidate for the Florida House. “We can’t allow men to compete against women and undermine their hard work. The International Olympic Committee must take immediate action.”

The IOC has defended its inclusion of Khelif, saying “all athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations,” as reported by The Associated Press.

Sky News notes that despite Khelif making the Olympic cut, she has been excluded before from competitions, including a disqualification at the International Boxing Association’s competition in India last year for failing to meet “eligibility criteria.”

Despite these historic issues, Khelif does not identify as transgender.

Carini isn’t taking a political position, meanwhile, saying that if “an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.