Algeria’s Imane Khelif (AP Photo)

GREATER NOIDA: The world’s leading women boxers have offered support to Olympic medallists Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who are at the centre of a gender eligibility row and face a possible ban from the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!TOI spoke to World Championships medallists Emma Sue Greentree of Australia, Italian Sirine Charaabi and World Cup Finals bronze winner England’s Elise Glynn to understand their views on the gender row involving Khelif and Yu-ting. All three agreed that the Algerian and Taiwanese Olympic champions should be allowed to compete in Los Angeles “as they are born female, naturally”.They felt offended “being female themselves” by the public scrutiny of Khelif and Yu-ting’s gender, with several reports claiming they possess male chromosomes and elevated testosterone levels.

Emma, Sirine and Elise criticised the IOC and the Trump-led US administration for supposedly treating Khelif and Yu-ting as transwomen athletes. “Khelif was born with different qualities from an ordinary woman. So was Yuting. I have trained with Khelif and know for a fact that she is a woman. If the Olympic committee admits her to the competitions, it is only right that every woman should compete against her. I think what Khelif suffered was not right. She is an Olympic champion and deserves respect,” said Sirine, 2025 Liverpool World Championships bronze medallist in 54kg.Emma, another bronze winner in Liverpool in 75kg, said she just wants the female boxing to be clean and there are female boxers such as Khelif and Yu-ting who are “absolutely amazing”.Elise, Team Great Britain’s No.1 woman boxer in the 60kg division who settled for bronze here, said the genetic sex screening test as mandated by the World Boxing (WB) ahead of the Liverpool Worlds, was invasive and meddled with the privacy of female athletes.It was because of this gender testing that both Khelif and Yu-ting chose not to participate at the Worlds in Sept.“I haven’t come across the Taiwanese girl but Khelif, I believe, was born female. The discrimination against both athletes has been unjust without true findings. If they aren’t allowed to compete at the LA Olympics, it would be unfair to them,” she said.