KYZYL, September 2. /TASS/. The participation of transgender athletes in women’s events is simply destroying female sports, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students at School No. 20 in Kyzyl, the capital of Russia’s Siberian region of Tuva.

"It’s not fair at all; it’s nonsense, just absurd," the head of state stressed, commenting on the Paris Olympics, where athletes who had previously failed gender tests were allowed to participate in boxing events. "They are simply destroying female sports. Actually, any man can just go and declare himself a woman and compete in any event, depriving women of the possibility to take the podium, let alone winning the competitions," Putin noted.

One of the girls taking part in the meeting told the president that she herself was a boxer. The head of state asked what the girl thought about this year’s Olympic boxing tournament. "A man who declared himself a woman knocked a real woman out and broke her nose," Putin described the situation. The student, in turn, said that "it wasn’t very fair to the girls who had trained a lot."

Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei took the gold medal in the women's 57kg weight class in the boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, while Imane Khelif of Algeria won the women's 66kg weight class event. Both athletes had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championship after failing gender tests. The International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow them to compete in Paris provoked an outcry from the sporting community.