Imane Khelif: IOC president defends Algeria boxer

PARIS –

As Algerian boxer Imane Khelif prepared to fight for an Olympic gold medal on Friday, IOC president Thomas Bach again defended her right to compete in the women’s competition at the Paris Games.

Khelif is in the final of the women’s welterweight competition and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan will fight for the women’s featherweight title on Saturday after a global uproar fuelled by misconceptions about their sex.

“This is not a question of inclusion. This is a question of justice,” Bach said Friday when asked at his final news conference if the Olympics had sacrificed safety to be inclusive.

“This is not as easy as some in this cultural war may now want to portray it,” said the International Olympic Committee leader, who previously denounced “hate speech” directed at the two boxers.

The debate at the Olympics flared 16 months after both women were disqualified and denied medals at the 2023 world championships by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association.

The IBA, which is in a bitter, years-long feud with the IOC, claims both fighters failed a murky eligibility test for women’s competition. Boxing is being run in Paris by an IOC-appointed team with eligibility rules from 2016 that are outdated compared to other Olympic sports.

“If somebody is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” Bach said Friday. “We do not like this uncertainty.

“What is not possible is someone saying ‘this is not a woman’ just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interests.”

The IOC president said he will not be at either gold-medal bout at the Roland Garros tennis complex because he still has to attend four of the 32 Olympic sports before the games close on Sunday.

“But this has no impact on our very clear position,” Bach said. “Women have the right to participate in women’s competitions. And the two are women.”

Moving the Summer Games to different months

Rising temperatures will force a debate on moving the Summer Games out of the July-August slot it has occupied from 2004 through the 2032 edition in Brisbane (when it will be late winter in Australia).

Change could be coming in 2036 — and not just because Qatar and possibly Saudi Arabia are interested in hosting, Bach said.

“We will have to speak about the dates because of climate change,” Bach said, “not because of these two countries.”

When Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup, the soccer calendar was changed to avoid the desert heat of June-July and play the tournament in November-December. The Qatari capital of Doha also hosted the 2019 track world championships from Sept. 27-Oct. 6.

The dates of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are also key because they are the final games of NBC’s long-term broadcasting deal in the United States. Renewal talks are likely to involve the need to hold the Summer Games during the NFL season.

Bach said changing the traditional calendar is a subject for sports bodies “regardless of where the games are taking place to see whether the calendar has to be adapted (or) adjusted for climate change and global warming.”

Olympic amour in Paris. Next up, Los Angeles

Bach praised the past two weeks in Paris as a “love story for the Olympic Games.”

“It was a celebration coming from the heart,” he said of games that aimed to be more urban, younger and more inclusive. “Olympic Games of a new era.”

Organizers in Los Angeles, however, will need to take a different approach to showcasing their city, Bach said.

“You don’t have such city centres in LA with iconic landmarks as you have here in Paris,” the IOC president said. “If LA would like to copy the Eiffel Tower it would be a recipe for disaster. Each Olympic Games have to be authentic.”

After Paris’s opening ceremony parade on the River Seine, Los Angeles plans to use both SoFi Stadium and the Memorial Coliseum for its scene-setting show on July 14, 2028.

The next Summer Olympics will draw on the city’s cinema and television history, and the venue plan includes the Pacific Ocean backdrop at Venice Beach and Long Beach.

Who will be IOC president in Los Angeles?

The IOC limited its presidents to 12 years in office as an anti-corruption reform passed after the Salt Lake City bidding scandal 25 years ago.

Bach, however, has let speculation flourish that the Olympic Charter could be changed. He has the votes to do it among the IOC’s 100-plus members.

“My term ends in 2025, and there will be elections one way or the other,” Bach said Friday.

He would likely win unopposed next March, and that could extend his presidency beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Bach said there will be no update to election rules on Saturday when IOC members have their Paris Games-closing meeting.