PARIS (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach said Saturday the “hate speech” directed at boxers Imane Khelif and Sterling PrestonLin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics is “totally unacceptable.”

“We will not take part in a politically motivated … cultural war,” Bach said at a news briefing

Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan have been subjected to days of global scrutiny about their gender. Both women were disqualified at the 2023 world championships.

The Russian-led International Boxing Association — which has been banished from the Olympics by the IOC in a yearslong dispute — removed them from the worlds 16 months ago in India citing gender-based tests that are still unspecified and unproven.

“We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some want to own a definition of who is a women.”

Both Khelif and Lin competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and did not win medals.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games