With the start of the Winter Games, a story this week resurrected a controversy from the last Summer Olympics. Previously, Olympic officials and pundits denounced those who objected to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif competing as a woman, saying that she was born a female. Female boxers withdrew from the competition rather than fight Khelif. Now, the boxer has admitted to having XY chromosomes and is taking hormone treatments to lower testosterone levels for the next Olympics.
At the time, IOC chief Thomas Bach said: “We have two boxers… who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women, who have competed for many years as women. And this is a clear definition of a woman.”
In 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) President Umar Kremlev explained the IBA’s decision to disqualify Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships. While there remains confusion on the testing used by the IBA (or the reliability of those tests), it issued this statement:
“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”
Various media also did their own “fact checks” with outlets like USA Today stating that the “outcries from anti-trans celebrities and politicians” were based on false claims and the boxers were born women.
NBC also cited “attacks from anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives online who claim they’re transgender.” It stressed that the IBA could not be trusted since the IOC banned the group. (IBA was banned for corruption and financial-related issues).
I wrote about the controversy, criticizing the lack of consistent testing and simple confirmation of the XY chromosomal allegation.
Khelif still insists on competing against female boxers and added:
“Doctors and teachers decide. We all have different genetics, all different hormone levels. I’m not a transsexual. My difference, it is natural. I’m like that. I did nothing to change the way nature did to me. That’s why I’m not afraid. For the next Games, if you have to take a test, I will submit to it. I have no problem with that. I already did this test. I contacted World Boxing, I sent them my medical record, my hormonal tests, everything. But I had no answer. I’m not hiding, I’m not refusing testing. What I don’t understand is why we want to make my story so bigger.”
Notably, Khelif previously filed a criminal complaint against JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberbullying. It is another example of how free speech is being eviscerated in Europe through the criminalization of political speech. I cannot find a record of the complaint’s status.
. It’s evolutionary biology and actual science. How humans differentiate as fitness. Why XX and XY and reproductive advantage via evolution. It’s not creation theory. It’s evolutionary theory. The differentiation happened slowly. All life leads to reproduction.
On a small scale this problem of male female is DNA as XX or XY. DNA tests are done for participation in sports fields. It’s an objective standard.
Otherwise dress, behave, like, love as you FEEL and the federal standard USA is 18 years old. The public has no community interest otherwise as there aren’t natural offspring that can cost a community money and care. Public laws aren’t of interest. Mitigation and accommodations under disability act may be considered if not burdens.
Post XX and XY for sports. XX can box XY by choice or not. This man harmed women. It’s not ok.
Jesus who cares about any of this? This whole issue is so overblown. It affects so few people in something (sports) that just doesn’t ultimately matter.
You must really hate women. They’ve been cheated out of hundreds if not thousands of medals and scholarships by mediocre male athletes unfairly competing against girls and women (not to mention invading their locker rooms and showers).
Just because you’re a condemnable misogynist, don’t assume everyone else is.
PS it’s no wonder you post your garbage anonymously. Get a screen name, coward.
“Get a screen name, coward.” Amen.
Well. Clearly you are absolutely fine with female athletes being battered before the whole world by men. Some of them have been irrevocably injured, but that just dandy as far as you are concerned. Some of us, thankfully, care about women’s safety and their hard-won achievements, even if you are a misogynist. Shame on you.
“[W]ho cares about any of this?”
Anyone who cares about justice.
Who care about this? The female athletes care. They put in an extraordinary amount of training for years to compete in the Olympics and are forced to compete against biological males. We have separate sports classifications for youth and adults, weight class, biological sex is just as relevant. Relatively few people are impacted by this but there are very few people who can compete at the level of Olympic athletes.
Unless you happen to be one of those women affected. If it does not matter why did he lie about his birth sex? If it does not matter, what do you tell all of the girls and young ladies that did not get scholarships that can affect them for a better education? If it does not matter, why don’t we get rid of all gender based divisions and have women compete against men?
Because it matters.