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The head of the governing body that hopes to run the next Olympic boxing tournament said he has not seen "one single test" that proves two female boxers at the centre of a gender controversy are transgender.
The eligibility of women's boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has come under intense scrutiny following Khelif's 46-second victory over Italy's Angela Carini on Thursday.
Khelif's emphatic win in the opening round of the 66kg competition drew widespread criticism. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the match-up as "not on an equal footing" while tech billionaire Elon Musk responded "absolutely" to a post on his social media platform, X, by an American swimmer that "men don't belong in women's sports".
On Friday, Carini apologised to Khelif over the way she handled the moments after the fight.
"All this controversy makes me sad," Carini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
"I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision."
And World Boxing president Boris van der Vorst said his organisation fully supports the International Olympic Committee's eligibility policies at the Paris Olympics, and urged critics without deep understandings of gender issues to entrust those determinations to medical professionals and scientists.
“I have not seen one single test that is proving that [the boxers are] transgender,” Van Der Vorst said in an interview with the Associated Press. “That’s the reason why it’s not very respectful for the boxers who are competing here ... to speak about them in these terms. That’s what I’m trying to stress. When there is proof, yeah, that’s a different situation. But I haven’t seen anything that proves it.”
Van der Vorst said World Boxing, which hopes to run the men's and women's boxing events starting at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, said his organisation will put athletes' safety first in developing its own policies on health and gender, adding that combat sports sometimes require extra considerations to protect all athletes.
“I think it’s very important that when people are eligible to compete here, we have to respect them,” Van der Vorst said. “I think it’s a very sad situation for all boxers, everyone involved here."
The now-banished International Boxing Association (IBA), which World Boxing hopes to replace, claimed both fighters failed gender eligibility tests at its 2023 World Championships after both had competed in amateur boxing for many years.
The IBA, which has been out of the Olympic movement since 2019 after years of IOC concerns about its leadership, integrity and financial transparency, said on Wednesday that the pair were previously disqualified "to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition".
Khelif competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, losing to Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarter-finals. She is back in action against Hungary's Luca Anna Hamori in the quarter-finals on Saturday, where there is likely to be even more scrutiny on the Algerian.
Lin fights on Friday in the 57kg category.
During her brief outing on Thursday, Khelif landed two flush right hands, causing damage to her Carini's nose. A distraught Carini ignored attempts by Khelif to shake her hand at the end of the bout and fell to her knees and sobbed before breaking into tears again in front of the media.
Although Carini said she was not making a political statement about Khelif, Carini’s tearful abandonment of the bout became a worldwide sensation on social media.
Speaking to the media after the bout, Carini, who had blood on her shorts, said Khelif's punches “hurt so much" and that the loss had left her "heartbroken".
“What happened today, it shouldn’t be happening like this," Van der Vorst said. “The pressure that there is from social media, from the press, from everyone else, it’s not very helpful, and it’s getting into everyone’s head.”
Van Der Vorst's World Boxing is an alliance of several dozen nations who broke away from the IBA after an internal power struggle failed to oust its Russian president, Umar Kremlev. An IOC task force has run the past two Olympic boxing tournaments.
If World Boxing gains approval to become the sport's Olympic governing body, it will be in charge of the major tournaments during the Olympic cycle. If World Boxing doesn't succeed, boxing likely will be dropped from the Olympic programme.
Van Der Vorst said it’s “too early” to know World Boxing's exact policies on gender, given the unique physical demands and dangers of boxing.
“First of all, safety above all,” Van der Vorst said. “But I think with a combat sport, there could be some other reasons how you are going to deal with these kinds of situations.”
The IOC used rules from 2016 in determining boxers' gender eligibility, while several Olympic sports' governing bodies have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. The governing body for track and field also last year tightened rules on athletes with differences in sex development.
“We will assign our medical committee as soon as possible after these Games to make policy, and they are already in progress,” Van der Vorst said. "You need to have good tests, not only the gender tests, but also the medical tests. More importantly, I think it’s not up to you and I. It’s up to the [professional] people who are involved in [the testing].”
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Directed by: Bill Condon
Three out of five stars
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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By Michael Wolff,
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Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 1
Kane (50')
Newcastle United 0
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Teaching in coronavirus times
South Africa v India schedule
Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg
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