IOC calls tests that sparked vitriol targeting boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting impossibly flawed

PARIS — Olympics organizers said Sunday that arbitrary testing imposed on boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting that led to a storm of vitriol misidentifying the women as transgender or men was “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams again vigorously defended Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan, hammering the sport’s now-banned governing body, the International Boxing Association, that claimed the fighters failed unspecified eligibility tests for women’s competition. “From the conception of the test, to how the test was shared with us, to how the tests have become public, is so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.” Lin and Khelif have been at the center of a clash over gender identity and regulations in sports as critics have brought up their disqualification last year. The IBA claimed they failed “to meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.” The Russian-dominated governing body was given the unprecedented punishment of being permanently banned from the Olympics last year and has not run an Olympic boxing tournament since the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. On top of all of the social media harassment that these these athletes have had.” IOC President Thomas Bach had sought Saturday to draw a line under days of global scrutiny about the female boxers and what he described as a politically motivated “cultural war.” “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.