The IBA, which is not recognized by the IOC over transparency issues, has said the specifics of the test are confidential-- though Kremlev alleged to Russian news agency TASS last year Khelif had XY chromosomes-- a pair of chromosomes typically possessed by men (Kremlev did not disclose testing details or evidence for the claim)." - click here
So the IBA has been banned for lack of transparency; even the IOC couldn't get back to the original data on the "failed test" claim! But the IOC seems to be just relying on passport declarations of sex categories, which doesn't prove anything scientifically. Here are the actual rules for Olympic boxing from the IOC: click here. It's full of tables and quotas for male/female classifications, but the word "sex" is never mentioned and no basis for determining sex is given. It's like the IOC banned the IBA, then just decided to avoid the whole issue altogether, even though in the past, many athletes have failed sex tests to qualify for Olympic competition.
None of this is Khelif's fault. She (using the IOC's unscientific, outsourced, definition of "she") is just caught in the middle. Maybe she is a DSD (Different Sex Development) individual, maybe not. The IBA hasn't made recent statements to the IOC or anyone else that I could find. Maybe they are circling the wagons.
The conditions that fall into DSD are beyond the scope of this article, but there are many of them, and the variety of potential outcomes almost falls down to the individual level. It's not surprising that so many judging bodies, including the IOC, have basically "punted" the question, and when politics is involved, it's a red hot potato of controversy extending well beyond scientific definitions.
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