Imane Khelif advanced to the Round of 16 by stopping Angela Carini earlier today
Boxing became arguably the Olympics’ most talked-about event today, though not for reasons most would prefer. Controversy erupted when Italian boxer Angela Carini quit after a single punch to the face from Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who alongside Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing a “gender test.”
Prominent figures in the sport like Claressa Shields and Jamel Herring went off about the injustice of a “man” beating up a woman, with Sampson Lewkowicz going so far as to claim Khelif “had surgery” to transition.
There’s just one problem: Khelif and Lin aren’t transgender.
The only evidence of them not being cisgender women (assigned female at birth) comes from the IBA’s ruling and a Telegram post from president Umar Kremlev claiming Khelif’s and Lin’s test revealed XY chromosomes, but the IBA has never actually explained what that supposed “gender test” was. After previously claiming that Khelif’s testing revealed XY chromosomes, their most recent statement claims that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test.”
As the International Olympic Committee points out in their statement:
We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.
These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing”.
From the linked minutes:
Mr. Marko Petric, IBA Head of Sport, presented two cases of the athletes from Algeria, Imane Khelif, and Chinese Taipei, Lin Yu-ting, who, competing at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in India, failed to meet eligibility rules, following a test conducted by an independent laboratory.
It was proposed to ratify the decision made by the IBA Secretary General and CEO to disqualify both athletes and reinstate the athlete from Thailand, Janjaem Suwannapheng, who lost to the Algerian boxer in the semi-finals. This decision would allow Janjaem Suwannapheng to fight in the finals in the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.
The Board asked for clarification as to why this issue was being brought up at the end of the Championships when the concerned athletes already made their way through different stages of the event. IBA Secretary General and CEO explained that testing was conducted upon the request of the Technical Delegate and Medical Jury of the Championships. The results became available in seven days and the IBA Secretary General and CEO, acting on behalf of IBA, notified the athletes immediately about their disqualification, giving them twenty-one days to appeal the decision to CAS.
Further, all of Khelif’s official documentation marks her as female and Algeria does not allow individuals to change their official sex. The country’s legal code is, in fact, against any sort of LGBT expression at all, with homosexuality carrying a maximum sentence of two years in prison. There are also photos of her as a little girl out there, not to mention a well-documented life story of growing up female.
So, to sum it up:
- Khelif is legally a woman in a country that disallows any form of LGBT identity.
- There’s significant physical evidence of her growing up as a woman in said country. The same is true for Lin.
- Khelif competed internationally from 2018-2023 without a single issue, including a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid that saw her fall to Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.
- In 2023, one of the most legendarily corrupt organizations in sports declared mid-tournament that she and Lin had failed a “gender test” that they refuse to actually specify, then disqualified them immediately without the opportunity for due process. This is especially noteworthy because said organization oversaw many of Khelif’s prior events and never had an issue.
- In 2024, she and Lin passed “all applicable medical regulations” from the IOC, which were identical to those from the 2020 Games.
Claims are swirling that Khelif does possess XY chromosomes, but the only source appears to be Kremlev himself. The supposedly damning test has never been made public or even defined. Every single other test these women took in the last six years confirmed that they were exactly what they claimed to be.
All available evidence points to these women being victims of bad actors and public figures who rushed to judgment without understanding the facts. Some of said actors have pivoted to hyping up the XY claim, asserting that Khelif is cisgender but possesses a DSD like androgen insensitivity syndrome or Swyer syndrome that gives her an “unfair” advantage, but there’s no meaningful evidence for that, either.
There’s only one trans boxer at the Games: Filipino middleweight Hergie Bacyadan. Bacyadan is a trans man (assigned female at birth) who has not undergone any hormone therapy or surgical procedures, meaning he possessed no exogenous advantages over the women in his bracket. He lost in the round of 16 to top seed Li Quan.
The abuse hurled towards Imane and Lin was unconscionable and they deserve apologies that they’re sadly unlikely to receive.
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