"Nature and the biological world do not change"- Former Chair of IBA Medical Committee speaks on Imane Khelif controversy

By Adityan Pillai

Modified Aug 06, 2024 05:30 GMT

The former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee, Dr. Ioannis Filippatos spoke about the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics in a press conference organized by The International Boxing Association. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif came under the scrutiny of fans and enthusiasts after Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned the preliminary match in the women's 66kg at the Paris Olympics in less than a minute.

Since then, there have been many questions about the inclusion of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics as both boxers were disqualified from the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships 2023 held in New Delhi. At that time, the president of the International Boxing Association, Umar Kremlev, spoke to Russia's Tass news agency about the suspension and said:

"Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”

However, as the two boxers were cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee, a lot of questions were raised about the ruling by the IBA. To address the situation, the International Boxing Association organized a press conference in which the former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee, Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, who has thirty years of experience, spoke about the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif and said:

"Medicine is knowledge, it is not opinion, it's knowledge. I know who is a woman and man. One passport can give to us the opportunity to be men, and, tomorrow when I go back to Athens, I can go to my government and change my name from Ioannis Filippatos to Ionnia Filippatos. Please. The nature and the biological world do not change. We can change anything else in our life from career to technology but we cannot change nature."

IOC president Thomas Bach speaks on 'hate' towards Imane Khelif & Lin Yu-Ting

Olympic Games Paris 2024 - Boxing - Source: Getty

IOC president Thomas Bach came out as a strong support to boxers Imane Khelif & Lin Yu-Ting and called out the hate directed towards them in a press conference held in Paris.

"We will not take part in politically motivated, sometimes politically motivated cultural war. And allow me to say that what is going on in this context in the social media, with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse and fuelled by this agenda is a totally unacceptable," he said [at 1:25].

Imane Khelif is scheduled to compete in the semi-final round of the women's 66kg division against Thai boxer, Janjaem Suwannapheng on August 6, 2024, at 4:34 pm ET.