Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) in the women’s featherweight division and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif in the women’s welterweight division at this year’s Paris Summer Olympics have become the focus of international attention over gender eligibility disputes.
The controversy began on Aug. 1 after Italian boxer Angela Carini abruptly abandoned her fight with Khelif after 46 seconds in the first round. She later fell to her knees sobbing and declined to shake hands with Khelif. She said she had never been punched so hard, and decided to quit the fight.
Khelif’s victory roused transgender anxiety among some well-known public figures, including British author J.K. Rowling, who baselessly called Khelif a man and her win “a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment.” Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk also endorsed a post that included a photo of Carini with the statement “men don’t belong in women’s sports,” and replied: “absolutely.”
After Lin beat Bulgarian boxer Svetlana Staneva in the featherweight quarter-final and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman in the semi-final, Staneva and Kahraman crossed their fingers into an “X” sign, interpreted by many as hinting they have a pair of X chromosomes and are “real biological women.”
Lin and Khelif were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from its World Boxing Championships last year, saying that a gender eligibility test showed they had “competitive advantages over other female competitors.” Lin was stripped of her bronze medal, and Khelif disqualified shortly after she defeated a Russian boxer and hours before her gold medal bout.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the IBA from its governing role in 2019 due to concerns about its ethics, credibility and lack of financial transparency. The IBA also failed to specify what tests the boxers took, provided no documentation and gave conflicting statements.
IBA president Umar Kremlev reportedly said that Khelif and Lin had “XY chromosomes,” but on Monday last week said the tests showed the boxers had “elevated testosterone,” contradicting an IBA written statement that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination.”
Meanwhile, IOC officials have strongly backed the two boxers, saying that Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case,” and repeatedly confirmed Lin’s eligibility to fight in a women’s division.
“This is not a question of inclusion. That never played a role in all this,” IOC president Thomas Bach said. “Women must be allowed to take part in women’s competitions, and the two are women.”
Moreover, changing one’s registered gender in Algeria is illegal, and Khelif and Lin have never been identified as transgender or intersex. Both have also competed in women’s boxing for years, including the Tokyo Olympics 2020, and have lost to many women.
It is ironic that anti-trans advocates have long argued that people remain the sex they were assigned at birth, but call Khelif and Lin “men,” even though they are cisgender women who were born female, and identified and lived their life as females, because they were “too strong” or “don’t look feminine enough.”
The Games are about fair play, and a fundamental principle is the practice of sport as a human right without discrimination. Fairness can be questioned if athletes do not respect the rules, or enhanced their performance through doping; it should not be based on misogynistic speculation. As there is no proof Khelif and Lin have higher testosterone levels or XY chromosomes, and they have complied with the Games’ eligibility, entry and medical requirements, they should not be bullied, discriminated against or denied their right to compete just because they seem “masculine.”
The IOC made the right decision to protect Khelif’s and Lin’s right to compete fairly, as the women they were born as and continue to be.
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