Rabat – International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach on Saturday denounced the culture wars that prompted a viral campaign of hate speech targeting two female boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Bach pointed to the US culture wars, where hate speech against transgender or non-binary people is commonplace, as the source of the torrent of hateful misinformation against Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting.
“We will not take part in a politically motivated … cultural war,” Bach told the assembled press, clarifying that “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.”
Bach claimed that Russia had a role in creating the issue surrounding the two participants in this year’s women’s boxing category. The IOC president said Russia is targeting this year’s Olympics after having been banned from participating. Currently 14 Russian athletes are taking part in the international contest, however they do so as “neutrals,” not representing Russia.
Bach pointed at the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) as the source for the controversy. In 2023, the IBA barred Khelif and Yu-Ting from participating over claims they failed a “gender identity test.” The IBA currently refuses to share the results of the test.
The IOC President stated that “what we have seen from the Russian side and in particular from the (IBA),they have undertaken already way before these Games with a defamation campaign against France, against the games, against the IOC.”
The online hate campaign started after Algerian Olympian Imane Khelif soundly defeated her Italian opponent, Angelina Carini, who abandoned the fight after 45 seconds and refused to shake her victorious opponent’s hand.
Within minutes, far-right social media accounts started claiming Khelif was born a man, pointing to the fight as an example of what would happen if a transgender person would compete in women’s sports, a major theme of the right-wing side of the US culture wars.
Read also: Olympics 2024: Campaign Defends Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif Against Transgender Claims
The resulting wave of hate directed at Khelif included tweets from a variety of celebrities who publicly speak out against transgender rights, including Elon Musk and JK Rowling The boxing match instantly became an American political talking point, as both former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance too to social media to denounce Khelif as a “cheating transgender person.”
None of those diving into the campaign appeared to have checked Khelif’s public boxing record, which shows she has been defeated by 9 female opponents and has participated in a variety of renowned international boxing tournaments, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Amy Broadhurst, the last person to defeat Khelif in the ring, spoke out about the controversy, defending Khelif. Angelina Carini too spoke up, expressing regrets that she had not shaken her opponents hand and said she would “give Khelif a hug” if they would meet again.
Despite the protestations of the IOC, the campaign of hate-speech appears not to be over yet, as Khelif’s next opponent, Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori posted she was “fighting the male boxer,”and shared a since-deleted image of a woman and a large monster in a boxing ring.
Khelif responded, not with words but with her skills as an athlete, as she soundly defeated Hamori in the ring on Saturday, August 3.
