The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, said on Saturday that the "hate speech" directed at boxers Iman Khalif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics is "absolutely unacceptable."

Bach said at a press conference midway through the games, which also aimed to put an end to days of global scrutiny regarding the gender of the female boxers: "We will not participate in a politically motivated culture war."

The President of the International Olympic Committee stated: "What is happening in this context on social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, fueled by this agenda, is absolutely unacceptable."

Khalif from Algeria and Lin from Taiwan have been the focus of intense scrutiny – and often inaccurate comments – as they were excluded from the 2023 World Championship.

The International Boxing Association, led by Russia – which was expelled from the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee in a years-long dispute – removed the boxers from the World Championship 16 months ago in India, citing still undefined and unproven gender-based testing.

Bach linked the issue of women's boxing to what he termed a broader campaign led by Russia against the International Olympic Committee and the Paris Olympics, where only 15 Russian athletes compete as neutrals without their national identity. The International Olympic Committee and international sports bodies isolated Russia during the military invasion of Ukraine.

Bach said, "What we have seen from the Russian side, especially from (the International Boxing Association), is that it has already embarked before these games on a smear campaign against France, against the games, and against the International Olympic Committee."

The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee filed an official complaint with the International Olympic Committee protesting the online harassment faced by Khalif, which amounts to a "serious violation of sports ethics and the Olympic Charter by one of the participants in the boxing championship" at the Paris Olympics, according to a statement published on the committee's Facebook page.

The statement did not name the boxer who made the offensive comments about the Algerian, but warned that the International Olympic Committee "issued a final warning to delete all posts related to our champion Iman Khalif."

The statement reads: "We reserve the right to sue anyone who participated in the vile campaign against our champion Iman Khalif."

Both Khalif and Lin, a two-time world champion, competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but did not win medals.

Bach stated, "We have boxers who were born as women, grew up as women, have a passport as women, and have competed for many years as women. Some want to have a definition of who a woman is."

The International Boxing Association raised tensions late on Friday, saying it would pay $100,000 – its promised prize for every gold medal winner at the Paris Olympics – to the Italian boxer who stopped fighting against Khalif in the first minute of their bout on Thursday.

Bach remarked, "It seems that everyone in our world feels compelled to say everything to anyone without really considering the sometimes very complex circumstances." "You won't arrive at a sound decision if you organize a social media poll asking 'Do you think this person is a woman or not a woman?'"

Boxing is the only sport at the Paris Games that is not run by a designated global governing body.

The competitions are organized by a specific sports unit of the International Olympic Committee, as they were three years ago in Tokyo, due to a dispute between Olympic leaders and the International Boxing Association over governance and integrity concerns, in addition to financial reliance on the Russian state energy company Gazprom.