New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Olympic Games after being selected for the women’s weightlifting team at Tokyo 2020.
Hubbard, who failed to record a successful lift in the women’s +87kg category, had competed in men’s events before coming out as transgender in 2013.
At Paris 2024, Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the gold medal in women’s welterweight boxing, a year after being disqualified from the World Championships for allegedly failing a gender eligibility test.
The 25-year-old was cleared by the IOC to compete, along with Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, who was also suspended by the suspended International Boxing Association (IBA).
The IOC said competitors were eligible for the women’s division if their passports said they were women.
Both fighters said they were women, had always competed in the women’s division and there was no suggestion they were transgender.
Some reports took the IBA saying that Khelif has XY chromosomes to speculate that the wrestler could have differences in sexual development (DSD), like runner Caster Semenya. However, the BBC was unable to confirm whether this is the case or not.
