Two boxers have already had their medals taken away – on very different grounds.
There was also precedent with two Olympic boxers losing their medals in controversy over Imane Khelif.
At Paris 2024 greeted Khelif during the welterweight 66kg women and the final was won by Khelif under which she beat China Yang Liu.
Within the competition itself, her right to participate was questioned on gender grounds, following a failed test of some kind, administered to her by the International Boxing Association (IBA) prior to the 2023 World Championships.
Khelif was not cleared to participate in the contest, though the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pointed out that she had adhered to the principles of the eligibility and entry requirements of the competition with regard to all the requirements of medical conditions before the entrance to Paris.
They also termed the IBA test as not legitimate and have asked the results should be thrown away.
World Boxing, the new governing body of boxing in the amateurs (after the IBA was suspended), have since written a letter to the Algerian Boxing Association wherein they note that Khelif should be medically screened through genetic testing before their participation in their licensed contests.
This effectively means that Khelif cannot compete until she undertakes those tests even though the body later apologised to have named her in the letter.
Her father has reportedly confirmed that she was born and raised as a girl and eventually turned out to become an Olympic champion.
Yet the IBA chairman, Umar Kremlev, has demanded that Khelif should hand back her medal – even though under IOC rules she was a legitimate competitor.
It is not unprecedented that Olympic boxers have had their medals taken away, but only in vastly different circumstances to the present one.
Russian boxer Misha Aloian tested positive to the prohibited stimulant tuaminoheptane after the conclusion of the men figure flyweight at the 2016 Russian Boxing Championship.
He captured a silver medal losing to Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan, but was subsequently disqualified in December of the year after returning his positive test.
And as far back as 1905 American fighter Jack Egan had two medals – a silver and a bronze, earned at the 1904 Games – taken away.
In the Olympics Egan used his assumed name instead of his real name, Frank Floyd.
That time around it was a violation of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)’s rule because he might have been found guilty of being a ringer (fighting on behalf of another man).
This was more likely to occur during the earlier parts of the 20th century since many wealthy individuals did not feel that they wanted to be so intimately connected with sports, and he was therefore disqualified in both the events that he won in November 1905.
