Women’s boxing world champion Claressa Shields has fumed over the decision to allow two fighters who failed gender tests to compete against females at this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Olympic chiefs have sparked outrage by allowing Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan – who were both thrown out of last year’s world championships after being deemed biological males – to enter the women’s boxing category in Paris.
Khelif, who also competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was disqualified from the competition after failing gender eligibility tests prior to her scheduled gold-medal bout, while Yu-Ting was stripped of her bronze following a similar result.
Despite this, the two boxers are set to fight against women athletes in the coming days after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) bosses insisted they have met all the required eligibility criteria to do so.
But Shields, who currently holds professional women’s world titles in three separate weight classes, has become the latest high-profile figure to hit out at the decision.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist wrote on X: ‘So they got men fighting against women in the Olympics boxing ! I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that!
‘That is so heartbreaking to the women who have to have their dreams ruined by a man. Sad asf!’
Shields first rose to fame in women’s boxing when she captured two gold medals at the Olympics; first coming out on top at the 2012 Games in London before repeating the feat four years later in Rio de Janeiro.
