“It hurt a lot, I had never been hit so hard,” said Italian Angela Carini after two blows from Algerian Imane Khelif that dislodged her helmet. In 46 seconds, the boxer left the fight with a strong pain in her nose. And she was crying on her knees. “I ended the fight because after the second blow, after years of experience in the ring and a life of fighting, I felt a strong pain in my nose. I said: ‘that’s enough. There are already female boxers who are saying that they are not going to get into the ring because this is not playing on equal terms,” said the Italian after the fight. But Khelif’s name has not resonated for her victory and passage to the quarterfinals, but for the controversy that was generated last year and in which the boxer has been immersed after criticism and rumors about her gender identity. At the 2023 World Championships, she was disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) alongside Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting for not meeting the eligibility criteria and excessive testosterone. However, both boxers have always competed in the women’s categories. “All athletes competing in the women’s category comply with the eligibility rules of the competition,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. In addition, the rule books for these Games are based on the version of the Rio 2016 Games, which also applied to Tokyo 2020. “They are women on their passports and it states that this is the case, that they are women. Furthermore, I would remind that this affects real people and that, by the way, it is not a transgender issue. I would like that to be absolutely clear,” Adams added.
Until last year, both Khelif and Yu-ting had been going about their careers as normal, but were always dogged by gender stereotypes and doubts. “They have competed and continue to compete in women’s competition. They have lost and won against other women over the years,” Adams said. Both competed in Tokyo 2020 without any problems – Khelif reached the quarter-finals – and have also competed in IBA competitions since their debut. Yu-ting won the 2018 World Championships and also the 2022 World Championships, when Khelif finished second. All up to the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, India: both women were disqualified by the IBA just as Khelif was due to compete in the final and Yu-ting, who lost in the semi-finals, already had the bronze. “The athletes did not undergo a testosterone test, but were subjected to a separate, recognised test, for which the details remain confidential. “This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA said in a statement on Thursday. The IBA’s president, Umar Kremlin, told TASS at the time that “several athletes tried to deceive their fellow athletes and pretended to be women.” He added: “According to the test results, they have XY chromosomes.”
There are previous cases of female athletes with XY tests. This happened in 1985 to the Spanish María José Martínez Patiño, who has a syndrome that makes her insensitive to androgens, the male hormones: her chromosomes are male, but her body does not know how to manage testosterone, so she does not develop all those external physiological traits that we assume men have: no penis, no hair, no more muscles. Patiño won her case and was able to compete as a woman again after the ordeal.
The same goes for the Algerian and the Taiwanese. After the World Cup, both boxers continued to compete, and earned their ticket to Paris 2024 in their respective qualifiers. The IBA had been the highest body for amateur boxing, but after the Tokyo Games, the IOC took over the competition, and accepted the participation of both athletes after having obtained their place. According to the Olympic Committee database, Khelif was eliminated from her fight for gold in India due to high levels of testosterone, while in the case of the Taiwanese, it was due to “a biochemical test”. Following the uproar generated, last Wednesday, the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee denounced in a statement the “malicious and unethical attacks” directed at Khelif “by some foreign media”. “These attempts at defamation, based on lies, are totally unfair”, said the organisation.
Athletes such as former tennis player Martina Navratilova and swimmer Sharron Davies, together with the International Women’s Sports Consortium and other associations, have addressed a letter to the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, to investigate “urgently the eligibility” of the two boxers to compete in women’s events, in addition to requesting that “the sex determination test with a cheek swab be reinstated.” […] in order to ensure fairness, dignity and integrity in women’s Olympic competitions.”
Since Tokyo 2020, some sports bodies, such as the International Swimming Federation, the International Athletics Federation and the International Cycling Union, have updated their gender rules, prohibiting athletes who did not transition before the age of 12 from participating in female competitions. And, in the specific case of athletics, the rules on athletes with differences in gender development have also been tightened. The most high-profile case is that of the two-time Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semnya, who has been required by the Federation since 2018 to undergo hormonal treatment to reduce her testosterone level (her body produces more of this hormone than science considers normal in a woman) in order to compete in events between 400 and 1,500m. After years of fighting in court and harassed by debates about her physical appearance, she appeared before the Human Rights Tribunal last May, with the case still open and under study.
A debate on the inclusion of athletes with hormonal variations in competitions is now chasing female boxers. Khelif remains focused on her goal, far from controversy, and will compete in the quarter-finals, while Yu-ting will face the Uzbek Turdibekova on Friday. Their fight will continue inside the ring, but also outside.
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