Two boxers are CLEARED to compete in the Olympics as women, despite being disqualified from the World Championships last year... as former athletes claim that 'gender ideology will get women KILLED'

Two boxers - banned from the world championships for being deemed biologically male – have been cleared to compete at the Olympics as women.

A row has erupted in Paris after it emerged that Imane Khelif, of Algeria, and Lin Yu-Ting, of Taiwan, were thrown out of the tournament last year amid questions over their biological sex.

Now, one former Olympian has claimed that gender ideology ‘will get women KILLED’ while Northern Ireland great Barry McGuigan described the situation as ‘shocking’.

IOC bosses say both meet eligibility criteria and will box over the coming days.

The pair were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March of 2023 in New Delhi after a series of DNA tests were ordered amid concerns over the sex of some of those taking part.

At the time Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) claimed the tests had proven the athletes – including Khelif and Yu-Ting, who will both fight later this week – had ‘XY chromosomes’. He added that they ‘uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women’.

But the IBA has been stripped of the right to run Olympic boxing competitions amid concerns over governance and the IOC say all athletes involved are eligible to compete, wih current rules viewed as more relaxed than those of the IBA.

Following last year’s ban, the Algerian Olympic Committee hit back, claiming the disqualification was part of a ‘conspiracy’ to stop them from winning a gold meal and said ‘medical reasons’ were behind high testosterone levels.

After the disqualification, Mexico’s Brianda Tamara came forward with her own experience of fighting Khelif earlier in the tournament.

‘When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,’ she wrote on X. ‘Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized.’

But Khelif, a welterweight, is due to fight Italy’s Angela Carini on Thursday, with Yu-Ting, a featherweight, in action on Friday.

According to feminist website Reduxx, both are thought both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a series of medical conditions identified at birth where genitalia is atypical in relation to chromosomes.

McGuigan is among those questioning the situation. ‘It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?’ he wrote on X.

Elsewhere, Nancy Hogshead – the American swimmer who won three golds at the 1984 Games, waded into the row, claiming that ‘gender ideology will get women KILLED’.

Hogshead wrote: ‘Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan are scheduled to compete in women’s Olympic boxing – despite being disqualified last year for having XY chromosomes, the male phenotype. Let’s remind ourselves that males – however they identify – pack a punch that is 162 per cent more powerful than women – THE biggest performance gap between men and women. Gender ideology will get women KILLED.’

One X user added: ‘Men punching women is now officially an Olympic sport’.

An IOC spokesperson said: ‘All athletes participating in the boxing tournament comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations, in accordance with the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.’