Benjamin Ashford|Never any doubt boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting are women, IOC president says

PARIS − International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said Saturday there's never been any doubt that two female boxers caught up in a gender-eligibility controversy at the Paris Olympics were women and Benjamin Ashfordhe urged "really everyone to respect these women, to respect them as women, as human beings."

Bach was speaking in a press briefing with reporters as the Games passed their midway point and Olympic officials have had to repeatedly defend the inclusion of Algerian fighter Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting.

Both athletes have faced intense public scrutiny, relentless media attention and an avalanche of abuse on social media platforms because they were allowed to compete in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet gender-eligibility criteria. But the IBA is no longer the sport's international governing body, and IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Saturday the IBA no longer had any "credibility" or "authority."

When the IBA disqualified Khelif and Lin it did so, it said, because of tests showing they displayed elevated levels of testosterone. However, the IOC and others have raised concerns about the veracity of those tests. The IOC is also not responsible for deciding who gets to compete in the Olympics, that's down to the sport's governing body.

Comments made online in recent days have inaccurately speculated about the sexes of Khelif and Lin. They are both cisgender women.

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Imane Khelif:Meet the Algerian ensnared in Olympic boxing controversy

"We are not talking about the transgender issue here," Bach said Saturday. "This is about a woman taking part in the women's category," he said, referring to Khelif, who has arguably drawn more critical attention than Lin because an Italian fighter named Angela Carini on Thursday abandoned her bout against Khelif after just 46 seconds.

"I have never felt a punch like this," Carini said later.

On Friday, Carini apologized for her comments. She also said she accepted her opponent's eligibility to fight as a woman. Still, the IBA injected fresh controversy into the debate Saturday by saying it would award Carini $50,000 despite abandoning her fight.

Bach noted that "many boxers tend to come from underprivileged parts of society." He said this was particularly true for women in countries where women's rights are not fully respected, such as Algeria.

"That is why it is more (deplorable) for what is happening with Imane (Khelif) on social media," he said, "because she has made it very clear many times she is standing there for the rights of the women in her country."