Outgoing IOC chief defends women boxers at centre of Paris gender row

In a wide-ranging interview as he prepares to step down as head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach has spoken out against an gender row that marked the Paris Games.

Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting each won gold in boxing amid an uproar about whether they were eligible to compete in the women’s division.

"This controversy about the boxing at the Paris Games is based on fake news, because it has been converted into a transgender discussion, and it's clearly no transgender issue,” said Bach.

He insisted the two were born and raised as women and that nobody had ever claimed that they are transgender.

“What happened there was a Russian-led disinformation campaign which then distorted the truth, the facts. And now we have this unfortunate situation that these two athletes are considered to be transgender, which they are not."

Last month, Khelif accused the International Boxing Association (IBA) of making "false and offensive" accusations against her.

The association, which lost its Olympic recognition in 2023 over governance issues, has launched legal action against the IOC for allowing her to compete.

Bach, who has led the IOC since September 2013, steps down as head of the Olympic body in June.