IOC says a gender row over which athletes can compete in Olympic sports is a "minefield”

The Star

A gender row over which athletes can compete in Olympic sports is a "minefield," but one thing is certain, rules cannot be changed mid-way through an event, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday (August 2), after controversy over boxing.  Italian boxer Angela Carini pulled out of the Olympics mid-fight on Thursday (August 1) after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00A question for the IOC, given that the issue of the boxer came up yesterday, but clearly

00:07we say there, and I think everyone would agree, you don't change the rules during a competition.

00:12No one should change the rules during a competition.

00:14Everyone needs to have certainty of the rules of competition.

00:19On the wider issue, there still is neither scientific or political consensus on this

00:26issue.

00:27It's not a black and white issue.

00:29This is a minefield, and unfortunately, as with all minefields, we want a simple explanation.

00:36Everyone wants a black and white explanation of how we can determine this.

00:40That explanation does not exist, neither in the scientific community nor anywhere else.

00:47As I've said before, if we can find a consensus and we will work towards a consensus, we will

00:51certainly work to apply that.

00:54Clearly that's not going to happen at these games.

00:57But this is a question also, I guess, in all sports, and I think we are open to listen

01:04to anyone with a solution to that question.

01:07The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed

01:13as a female, has a female passport.

01:16This is not a transgender case.

01:18I know you're not saying that, but there has been some confusion that somehow it's a man

01:23fighting a woman.

01:24This is just not the case.

01:27On that, there is consensus.

01:28Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman, and I think we need to get that out.

01:34I know boxing has gone through some disruption from the International Federation standpoint,

01:41and there's some figuring out to do, no question about it.

01:45It's unfortunate, but the images that we saw and the situation that it's caused, and again,

01:52I think there's always stuff that comes up in games, and this is something that is a reality,

02:00and we're going to have to address and be able to provide confidence, I think, to all

02:07athletes that there won't be any unfair advantages to particular athletes that competed in any

02:15given sport.

02:22For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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