International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has condemned the hate speech directed at boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics is “totally unacceptable.
Recall that Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan have been the focus of intense attention, and often inaccurate commentary, because both were disqualified at the 2023 world championships.
However, in a statement issued by IOC on Saturday, Bach noted that the committee won’t accept such act again.
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“We will not take part in a politically motivated … cultural war,” Bach said at a news briefing at the midway point of the games, that also tried to draw a line under days of global scrutiny about the female boxers’ gender.
“What is going on in this context in the social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, and fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable,” the International Olympic Committee leader said.
“What we have seen from the Russian side and in particular from the (IBA),” Bach said, “they have undertaken already way before these Games with a defamation campaign against France, against the games, against the IOC.”
Meanwhile, the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee filed an official complaint with the IOC to protest the online harassment of Khelif that amounts to “a serious violation of sports ethics and the Olympic Charter by one of the participants in the boxing tournament” at the Paris Olympics, according to a statement that was posted on the committee’s Facebook page.
The statement did not name the boxer who has allegedly posted disparaging comments of the Algerian, but warned that the IOC “has issued a final warning to delete every post that concerns our heroine Iman Khalif.”
“We reserve the right to prosecute everyone who participated in the heinous campaign against our heroine Imane Khelif,” the statement said.
Both Khelif and Lin, who is a two-time world champion, competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and did not win medals.
“We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some want to own a definition of who is a women.”
1 Comment
IOC is shaken by the heat their so called inclusion is already discrediting the boxing spot at these games. Complete Sports even copied
“Recall that Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan have been the focus of intense attention, and often inaccurate commentary, because both were disqualified at the 2023 world championships.”
The last paragraph is even distasteful by IOC. The Algerian boxer was born “biological male” and the ineffectual IOC is saying they have always been women.
I wish Floyd Mayweather can pull a stunt at competing at the next games a woman so that IOC can really understand their folly.