Another controversy has engulfed the 2024 Paris Olympics but this time it involves gender and boxing.
False allegations have been swirling around conservative media outlets and online spaces that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is a transgender woman in the women's competition. Right-wing conservative figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and many others have openly perpetuated this conspiracy theory online.
The controversy began when the fight between Italian boxer Angela Carini and Khelif swiftly ended after a mere 46 seconds on Thursday. Carini broke out in tears and left the ring, withdrawing from the match. After the match, she told reporters, “I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this,” The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Carini has since publically apologized to Khelif in an interview with an Italian newspaper, Gazzetta dello Sport. She said, "I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the [The International Olympic Committee] said she can fight, I respect that decision," The BBC reported.
About dropping out of the match, she said, "It wasn't something I intended to do. Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again I would embrace her."
However, Carini's withdrawal has ignited a gender-centered culture war. Her opponent, Khelif, is one of two boxers allowed to compete in Paris after being disqualified from the women’s world championships in 2023 for failing testosterone and gender eligibility tests. The IOC called the decision to bar Khelif and another boxer from the championship as a “sudden and arbitrary decision," USA Today reported.
Khelif was raised as and identifies as a woman and is not transgender nor intersex. According to the IOC, Khelif has a difference in sexual development (DSD), which is not the same as being transgender. This can mean that some people who develop as a woman can also have XY chromosomes. Despite women with DSD currently being allowed to compete in women's sports at the Olympics, that has not stopped conservative media from misgendering Khelif.
Musk has posted multiple times on X about the match between the women. He argued, "Men don’t belong in women’s sports."
In a series of tweets, Rowling also misgendered Khelif. The author posted a picture of the two women, stating, "Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered."
In another post, Rowling said, “A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because [the IOC] allowed a male to get in the ring with her."
Trump has also posted on Truth Social, "I will keep men out of women’s sports!” The Republican presidential nominee once said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” that “what gets the biggest applause” at his rallies is saying, “We will not allow men to play in women’s sports,” Rolling Stone reported.
Despite the misgendering of Khelif, the IOC issued a statement defending her and the other disqualified boxer, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting. “The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving. Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination,” it read. "We obviously condemn the harassment of which [Khelif] is a victim. Hate, denigration and insults are the opposite of the values we defend."
The IOC's spokesperson Mark Adams also urged people on Friday to be more mindful about discussing Khelif and Lin. “What I would urge is that we try to take the culture war out of this and actually address the issues and think about the individuals and the people concerned. Real damage is being done by misinformation.”
Marks reiterated, “The Algerian boxer was born a female, was registered a female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case. There has been some confusion that somehow it’s a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case, scientifically on that, there is consensus. Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman. And I think we need to kind of get that out.”
Also, Adams clarified that gender eligibility is an unsatisfactory system, dubbing it as a "minefield." He continued, "There are many women with higher [testosterone] levels than men so the idea that a testosterone test is some kind of magic bullet is not true."
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