In under just 46 seconds, Italian Olympian Angela Carini was hit by two powerful blows to the face and withdrew from her boxing match on Thursday against Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who was declared the winner. Although both competitors were vying for the gold medal in women’s boxing, Khelif had been disqualified from a women’s championship just one year ago after a sex-identification test.
Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, another Olympian competing in women’s boxing, had submitted a test to be evaluated in a laboratory and reviewed by the International Boxing Association for a 2023 women’s championship. The president of the International Boxing Association said that the results revealed “XY chromosomes,” and that the athletes “attempted to deceive their colleagues and passed themselves off as women.” The two athletes had previously undergone laboratory testing in 2022 that yielded similar results, although they were not disqualified because the results were received after the championship — which raises questions about the purpose of conducting such a test at all. Although the nature of the test has not been disclosed, the International Boxing Association said that it was not a “testosterone examination.”
Despite uncertainty about the precise qualifications and testing monitored by the IBA, it is clear that the Olympic Games have far less stringent requirements. The International Olympic Committee decided in 1999 to end sex-verification screening for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney because, according to a 2000 article published by Genetics in Medicine, the chromosomal testing was expensive, was discriminatory, and emotionally harmed female athletes. In 2015, the IOC effectively removed the “woman” requirement for women’s sports by allowing male competitors who (1) “declared” to be female, and (2) maintain testosterone levels at or below 10 nmol/L for one year, although such a threshold is well above the average female levels. Later, the IOC updated its “inclusion” policies and deferred eligibility considerations to the respective governing body of each sport. The IOC set forth the “principles” that “eligibility criteria” should “not systematically exclude” on the basis of “gender identity” or “sex variations,” and evaluations should not include “medically unnecessary procedures” or “invasive physical examinations” such as “gynaecological examinations.”
The Paris 2024 Boxing Unit and IOC released a statement on Thursday about the ongoing controversy and asserted that, like previous competitions, “the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.” The International Olympic Committee’s “Portrayal Guidelines” argue that “a person’s sex category is not assigned based on genetics alone.” But genetics do determine sex — regardless of what we “assign” or what letter is printed on a passport.
The issue isn’t whether the IOC violates its own rules. The issue is that those rules are unjust. Abolishing chromosomal testing and other forms of examinations allowed athletes with rare disorders that provide competitive advantages to participate in women’s divisions. South African runner Caster Semenya was presumed female, competed in women’s divisions, and won gold medals in the Olympic Games for women’s track-and-field. But years later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a decision confirming that Semenya has a DSD (differences in sex development) condition known as 46 XY 5-ARD (5-alpha-reductase deficiency). Semenya has XY chromosomes and normal sexual development did not occur in utero, leading to an undeveloped penis that was registered as a vagina at birth; Semenya has testes and testosterone levels well within the normal range for an adult male. “For me I believe if you are a woman, you are a woman,” Semenya told the BBC in 2023, adding that “being born without a uterus or with internal testicles” doesn’t “make me less of a woman.”
We disagree. Those of us who have defended women’s sports did not merely state that “trans women” should not be able to compete in those divisions. The argument was that males should be entirely excluded from women’s divisions — and all the available evidence suggests that Semenya, Khelif, and Lin are male, regardless of how they were perceived at birth, how they were raised, and how they identify. We have seen men claim positions on women’s podiums too many times: In July, every two-competitor relay team that medaled in the elite women’s division at the Marymoor Grand Prix in Washington State included a male athlete.
Although neither Khelif nor Lin (who coasted to victory on Friday by unanimous decision) has publicly identified as “transgender,” the Olympic Games’ expansive transgender-inclusion policies have enabled battery against women under the guise of “sports” rather than “violence.” Carini is suspected to have a broken nose; she said that “after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose” and she has “never felt a punch like this.” A previous competitor against Khelif, Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara, made similar remarks and stated that Khelif’s “punches hurt me a lot” and, “I don’t think I had ever felt that way in my 13 years as a boxer, not even in my sparring with men.” Make no mistake: A male swimmer might outpace his female competitors and claim their trophies, but a male boxer can put a female boxer in serious danger. The IOC should revise its guidelines before the Games turn into a tragedy.