Boxing official at centre of Olympic gender row was Keir Starmer’s best man at his wedding

2 August 2024, 11:24

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

An Olympics official embroiled in a growing row over the gender of a boxer was Keir Starmer’s best man at his wedding.

Mark Adams, spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has known Sir Keir since the two met at school decades ago, The Telegraph reports.

Mr Adams has described criticism against Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting as a ‘witch hunt’ as he defended the decision to allow both to compete, despite them both having failed gender tests in the past.

Khelif is facing backlash after her opponent, Angela Carini, stopped their fight after just 46 seconds when two punches saw her helmet dislodged.

Carini refused to shake hands with Khelif after the fight, as she wept on the canvas with a possible broken nose. Afterwards she said she ‘feared for her life’.

Caller defends Algerian boxer Imane Khelif

Speaking after Khelife's victory, Mr Adams told reporters: “Testosterone is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone which is in what would be called ‘male levels’ and still be women, and still compete as a woman.

“So this panacea, this idea that you do one test for testosterone, that’s not the case I’m afraid. But each sport needs to deal with its issues, they know their sports and their disciplines the best and they need to target and tailor I should say the testing and so on.

“But I hope we’re all agreed we’re not calling for people to go back to the bad old days of sex testing, which was a terrible thing to do and I’m sure we all agree that’s not the way forward in this situation.”

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Mr Adams continued to say that the controversy was ‘not a transgender issue’ and criticised the ‘misreporting’ surrounding the row.

Both Khelif and Yu-TIng were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March last year after failing gender tests.

The same tests did not occur this year as the IOC has different rules to the International Boxing Association.

Mr Adams continued: “He said: “These boxers are entirely eligible, they are women on their passports, they have competed for many years.

“I actually think it is not helpful to start stigmatising people who take part in sport like this. They are women who competed in Tokyo.

“I think we all have a responsibility to dial down this and not turn it into some kind of witch-hunt. These are regular athletes who have competed for many years in boxing, they are entirely eligible and they are women on their passports,”