By Ghislaine Gendron, Nadia El-Mabrouk and François Dugré
At the time of publication, Olympic boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting had won Olympic gold in their respective “women’s” weight categories and were announced as their countries’ flag bearers for the closing ceremonies. Both had tested previously as having XY (male) chromosomes.
This is a translation of an original story submitted to Gender Dissent in French.
It's hard to escape the media outcry caused by the participation of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting in the women’s Olympic boxing competitions in Paris. Hurtful remarks towards the athletes on one side, accusations of discrimination, racism, and even conspiracies on the other. How to explain this mess? Is the International Olympic Committee (IOC) responsible?
Recalling the facts
Khelif and Yu-ting were disqualified from the New Delhi World Championships in March 2023 due to two tests received by the International Boxing Association (IBA). These tests would have established their ineligibility to compete in a female category due to male XY chromosomes and testosterone levels falling within the male range. Neither party appealed this disqualification.
Imane Khelif on the left and Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori on the right
Photo: Peter Cziborra, Reuters
However, the IOC, having withdrawn recognition of the IBA for reasons of poor governance, did not renew this decision for the Paris Olympics. The IOC spokesperson even specified that he questioned the legitimacy of the tests.
This raises the question: if the IOC doubts the validity of the tests carried out and refuses to impose new tests, on what exactly does it base its claim that these two athletes meet the requirements to compete in the women's category?
Vague regulations
It should be noted that the IOC revised its regulations in 2021, now placing the burden of determining Olympic eligibility for the women's category on the international sports federations. The sports federations complied, with varying degrees of consistency, and at the cost of much controversy.
In the case of boxing, the rift between the IOC and the IBA has resulted in this responsibility being delegated to national boxing federations and their respective national Olympic committees, as well as to the boxing units set up by the IOC. However, since there is no single governing body and the criteria used vary from country to country, there is no basis for the assertion that the athletes in question are women or, as the test results suggest, men with a difference of sex development (DSD) linked to the condition of 5-alpha reductase deficiency (5-ARD).
IOC officials said in a statement that "the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport." However, a passport entry does not provide a definitive answer in this case. While people with 5-ARD are often assigned female status at birth because their external genitalia are not distinctly male or female, they later experience male puberty, which gives them male physiological advantages and testosterone levels within the normal male range.
This DSD condition, observed in 800-meter champion Caster Semenya, is used to justify Semenya being forced to lower (Semenya’s) testosterone level in order to compete against women. In women's athletics, people with the 5-ARD condition retain the right to compete with women but are subject to lowering their testosterone level (to 5 nml/per liter of blood until 2018, then to 2.5 nml/L). However, these maximum levels remain well above the testosterone ranges naturally produced by women and do not resolve the many issues related to the multiple physiological advantages acquired at puberty.
What about the boxing competitions at the Paris 2024 Olympics? Restrictions on the eligibility of these people are not mentioned in the regulations.
How then can we be insensitive to the dismay of female boxers who must face opponents who may have benefited from the physiological advantages brought by male puberty?
What is the solution for safe and non-discriminatory competition?
It is important to clarify that neither Khelif nor Yu-ting are to blame, nor should they be subjected to media harassment. Indeed, both athletes were authorized by the IOC and are not guilty of lying or cheating. The fault lies first and foremost with the IOC officials who have failed to issue fair and safe rules for women, who do nothing to dispel misunderstandings and thus create a feeling of injustice, sweeping accusations and a free-for-all that dishonors this global event.
Quebec boxer, Katia Bissonnette
Photo: Maxime Amyot/BSL Boxing Academy
What female boxers are asking for—such as Quebec boxer Katia Bissonnette, who is considering giving up boxing because the risk to her safety seems so high—is for the IOC and all boxing federations to take the necessary measures to prevent them from having to face opponents with male physiological advantages.
The IOC’s refusal to carry out genetic testing to confirm sex, paradoxically justified in the name of openness to "difference," in fact enshrines a serious injustice—an injustice for which women are the only ones to suffer the consequences while their safety is threatened, and which, in the long term, threatens the very survival of women’s sport competition.
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