Matthew Pinsent: IOC has only itself to blame for boxing gender row

Rowing legend Matthew Pinsent believes the International Olympic Committee had brought controversy on itself as the BBC addressed the boxing gender row that has hung over the Olympic Games.

The BBC has been criticised over its coverage of Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif’s participation in the boxing competition after they were deemed ineligible for the female category last year by the International Boxing Association; a governing body who were stripped of running the sport.

Lin and Khelif went on to win Olympic gold medals and, asked about the challenges facing a new IOC president, Pinsent, speaking on the BBC in the primetime slot just before the closing ceremony, said: “They are quite sizeable. Paris has been a huge success but there have been some very unfortunate headlines about boxing. The IOC, in a sense, asked for that as they have stepped in and said, ‘We don’t like the way boxing is being run, we are going to make the rules for the Olympics and the inclusion of Olympic athletes for the boxing’.

“And that has basically exploded on them. That has been really unfortunate. It has been totally of their own creation because they can’t have equity and inclusion. It is so weird they allowed it to happen. They can’t organise an event and say on the one hand ‘we are just organising the Olympics’ and then on the other hand diving into a sport and saying we are also going to write the rulebook for boxing for Paris, and that has been really unpleasant and unfortunate. There will be that controversy to get over.”

IOC president Thomas Bach announced on Saturday that he would be standing down next year, with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe reacting the following day by saying that he “would consider” standing for the looming vacancy.

Coe said that he had “a responsibility to preserve the female category” after overseeing new rules in athletics that means any athlete with differences in sexual development (DSD) must reduce their testosterone to 2.5 nanomoles per litre to compete in any event. Transgender women also cannot compete in the female category.

Pinsent also highlighted the challenge posed by Esports. “Esports will be waiting in the wings and there will be a big discussion over whether esports should be part of the Olympic programme,” he said. “We will have new disciplines and new sports: cricket will be part of the Olympics, squash is coming, flag football and other disciplines as well - rowing is looking forward to beach sprints.

“On the one hand it has been a huge success and huge expansion, and the world has fallen in love with the Olympics again, but the new president will have their work cut out, it is absolutely clear from next year onwards.”