'Women should fight against women': 2-time gold-medal boxer calls Olympics gender controversy 'unfair'

Two-time Olympic boxing champion Claressa Shields called out the International Olympic Committee for allowing boxers who previously failed gender eligibility tests to box against women.

Shields won the gold medal at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and remains undefeated in professional boxing. At 15-0, Shields had a TKO victory to win multiple titles just days before the boxing controversy at the 2024 games unfolded.

'I just can't believe that it's being done, and I just couldn't imagine it happening to me.'

The Olympics has been critiqued worldwide for allowing two boxers to compete against women despite their previously failing gender eligibility tests from the International Boxing Association. Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu‑ting of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) both were disqualified at the 2023 world championships in New Delhi after event organizers from the IBA determined them to be ineligible.

The IOC has acknowledged that Khelif was "disqualified just hours before her gold medal showdown against Yang Liu at the 2023 world championships in New Delhi, India, after her elevated ­levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria," the Guardian reported. The IOC also noted that Lin was "stripped of her bronze medal after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test."

So far at the Olympics, Lin had a dominating victory in the round of 16 of the women's 57kg category while Khelif made international headlines in the 66kg round of 16 by forcing opponent Angela Carini to forfeit in less than a minute.

"I don't even see how the Olympics [could do] something like this," Shields told Fox News. "It's just unfair. I just can't believe that it's being done, and I just couldn't imagine it happening to me," she continued.

The IOC has since stood firmly in its position to let the boxers fight women, saying that it was "saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving."

"Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination," the IOC continued, per ESPN.

The IOC went on to call the IBA's 2023 testing "arbitrary" and said the two fighters were "suddenly disqualified without any due process."

Italian press agency ANSA cited a gay-centric Italian communications company that claimed Khelif actually is "intersex" and not transgender.

"In contrast to the reports that have been circulating, the Algerian athlete Imane Khelif is not a trans woman," said Rosario Coco of Gaynet Communications. "From the information we have about her, she is an intersex person who has always socialized as a woman and has a sporting history in women's competitions."

IBA president Umar Kremlev told Fox News, "Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition."

Shields told Fox News she could understand the "devastation" the Italian female boxer was feeling after her loss: "It shouldn't be ruined due to a man. And I think that the Olympics definitely dropped the ball."

"[At] my first Olympics, I was 17 years old, so I hadn't even fully developed as a woman, so I couldn't imagine getting inside the ring with a biological man," Shields continued to Fox News. "All I'm saying is men should fight against men, women should fight against women, and transgenders should fight against transgenders."

Shields wasn't the only boxer to voice an opinion on the Olympic gender controversy. Boxer Jake Paul offered Carini — who forfeited to Khelif after just 46 seconds — a spot on one of his own promotions.

"To Angela Carini although your dreams couldn't come true today because of the crazy agendas that are at play in our world at the moment, I would love to offer you to fight on an [Most Valuable Promotions] undercard, to show the world your talents on a fair platform and not against a man. Internet help this find her," Paul wrote on X.

Khelif will now fight Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori on Saturday. Lin will match up against Bulgaria's Svetlana Kamenova Staneva on Sunday.

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