Women’s Boxing in the Olympics: What’s the Controversy About?

On Thursday, August 1st, 2024, two 25 year old boxers stepped into the Olympic boxing ring, Imane Khelif (خليف) from Algeria and Angela Carini from Italy. The match between them ended abruptly after only 46 seconds, , as Carini forfeited the fight following two hard blows to her face, one likely striking her nose. Carini shouted to her trainer in frustration "non è giusto!" (“it’s not right!”), and after Khelif was declared the winner Carini refused the customary handshake and instead fell to her knees in the ring, breaking down in tears while ignoring Khelif's attempts to comfort her. 

"I wasn't able to finish the match.” said Carini in tears in an interview with the BBC. “I felt a strong pain to my nose and I said [to myself] for the experience that I have - I hope my nation won't take it badly, I hope my dad won't take it badly - but I stopped, I said stop for myself,". Carini’s father passed away in 2021 and she had dedicated this year’s boxing matches to his memory, making the setback particularly painful. However, the day after the fight, Carini apologized for not shaking Khelif’s hand. "It wasn't something I intended to do [Ignore the handshake]," Carini said in an interview to the Gazzetta dello Sport website. "Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke". She added that her forfeit was not out of weakness, but maturity, and that if she meets Khelif again, she will give her a hug. 

Carini’s setback further inflamed an ongoing controversy, particularly on social media, surrounding Khelif. At its core, the dispute involves doubts regarding the boxer’s gender and her legitimacy to participate in sports competitions as a woman. "All this controversy makes me sad," said Carini. "I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said she can fight, I respect that decision".

Raising the Red Flag 

Carini’s initial reaction to her defeat, coupled with the fact that Khelif’s physique is less traditionally feminine than hers, brought renewed attention to reports that the Algerian boxer, like the 28-year-old Taiwanese Olympic boxer Lin Yu-Ting (林), had been banned in March 2023 from the women’s boxing world championship in India after allegedly failing qualifying tests the results and nature of which have never been disclosed.  

Soon after,  individuals known for their opposition to transgender women, both within and outside of sports, seized the opportunity to also attack women who are not trans, spreading unfounded claims about Khelif and Lin. Former U.S. President Donald Trump wrote in all caps on his social network “I will keep men out of women’s sports!”; Elon Musk, whose transgender daughter has cut ties with him, shared a tweet stating “Men don’t belong in women’s sports”; and J.K. Rowling, in a series of tweets where she repeatedly addressed Khelif as a male, claimed that the boxer is a man who enjoys beating on women.  

In a press conference held on Saturday, August 3rd, IOC president Tomas Bach suggested that the misleading information circulating on social media may stem from ongoing Russian disinformation campaigns targeting the Olympic Games and its athletes. “What we have seen from the Russian side and especially from the international federation from which we had to withdraw the recognition for many reasons, that they have undertaken, already way before these games, with a defamation campaign against France, against the games and against the IOC”, he said. “They have made a number of comments in this respect, which I do not want to repeat”. 

The dissemination of disinformation, which Russia is suspected of,  fits well with Russian campaigns specifically targeting the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including Israel’s participation, as well as with Russia’s general online behavior. This country is highly experienced in spreading fake news to harm other nations, inflame or intensify internal conflicts within them, and weaken them. 

The sports federation mentioned by Bach is the International Boxing Association (IBA). This organization was responsible for the world championship in India, and it disqualified Khelif and Lin during the tournament, after they had participated in several matches. Lin had won a bronze medal before her disqualification, which was subsequently taken away from her and awarded to Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva (Станева). Khelif’s disqualification occurred just a few hours before the final match and only days after she defeated the previously unbeaten Russian boxer Azalia Amineva (Аминева). This disqualification retroactively erased Amineva’s loss,  reinstating her undefeated status.

Transformed the International Boxing Association into a Russian entity. Umar Kremlev | Image:  Alexey Smyshlyaev, Shutterstock

Since the end of 2020, the president of the IBA has been the Russian Umar Kremlev. He is closely associated with Vladimir Putin, and a few months after being elected to lead the association, he transferred most of its activities to Russia, made the Russian state-owned company “Gazprom” its sole sponsor, and transformed the IBA into a de facto Russian entity. During his IBA presidential term Kremlev bullied Ukrainian athletes and even suspended Ukraine from the organization, prevented his opponent from running for the presidency, and eventually canceled the elections altogether. It is no surprise that even before the current controversy, he had acted against the IOC and the Olympic Games, from which Russia was banned.

The IBA was formerly recognized by the IOC as the overseeing body for Olympic boxing. However, in 2019, the IOC suspended the IBA from organizing these events. A year ago, the IOC fully withdrew its recognition, due to mounting evidence of issues such as problematic referee appointments, fight rigging, mismanagement, financial discrepancies, and suspicion of further corruption. The IBA thus became the first international governing body to be banned from the Olympic Games.

To ensure that boxing competitions could still take place at the Olympics, the IOC temporarily assumed responsibility for the discipline, until a new sports federation could be established, and established the Paris Boxing Unit to oversee the competition, ensuring it was not influenced by previous IBA rulings. This new unit adopted competition criteria based on the rules used in the previous Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo, which include provisions that athletes with a clear and unfair advantage over other competitors  are prohibited from competing. Under these criteria, Khelif and Lin were deemed eligible to compete in the Olympic Games.

After the opening of this year’s Games, Kremlev released a video in which he criticized the opening ceremony, insulted the president of the Olympic Committee by calling him the “chief sodomite” and falsely claimed that “men who changed gender are allowed to fight with women in boxing at the Olympics”. He and his organization kept attacking the IOC and the Games in various ways. In a move that can only be described as “trolling,” the IBA - no longer affiliated with the Olympic Games - declared that they would award a financial grant to Carini, the Italian boxer who lost to Khelif, as if she had won the Olympic gold, claiming that Kremlev “couldn’t look at her tears”. The Italian boxing federation, one of ten federations that left the embattled association, announced that it would be declining its share of the prize.

 

Battle Fog

The controversy surrounding Khelif and Lin originates solely from the IBA’s claims that test results revealed the boxers’ “failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations’. However, according to the regulation in effect at the time, there were no eligibility criteria that could explain the disqualification, except for the broad Section 4.2.1 which allows the IBA to simply disqualify anyone it chooses. In practice, the decision to ban Khelif and Lin was made solely by the association's CEO at the time and was retroactively approved by the executive board, despite not aligning with the existing regulations.

In protocols published by the IBA in March 2023, a few days after the disqualification, there are no details about the tests the boxers underwent or their findings, but it appears they were conducted before Khelif's match with Amineva. The media claimed that Khelif was disqualified due to abornally high levels of testosterone, a hormone that can increase muscle mass and strength. In contrast, Kremlev told the Russian news agency TASS that “we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and posed as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY-chromosomes", which are typically male chromosomes. But what does Kremlev’s statement mean, and is it accurate?

We will start with the basic question of what chromosomes actually are. The genetic material in the nucleus of each cell, DNA, is divided and packaged into sections called chromosomes. Most of our cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, 46 individual chromosomes in total. We inherit one chromosome from each pair from our mother and the other from our father. One pair of these 23 pairs of chromosomes includes the sex chromosomes—X and Y. In mammals, including humans, females typically have two X chromosomes, while males usually have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome - an XY pair. Since females have a pair of X chromosomes, they pass on one such chromosome to their offspring, while the father’s contribution—either an X or a Y chromosome—determines the sex of the fetus: if the fetus receives a Y chromosome from the father it is expected to develop as male, and if it receives an X chromosome - it is expected to develop as female.

According to IBA protocols, it was only after the boxers were disqualified that the executive committee requested the regulations be updated to establish protocols for sex testing.Two months later the regulations were indeed updated and now Section 4.2.1 states that only individuals of the same gender can compete against each other, “women against women and men against men”. However, a review of the regulations reveals that the section does not actually refer to gender or even sex, but to chromosomal composition: men are defined as having XY chromosomes, and women as having XX chromosomes. 

On Monday, August 5th, the IBA held a press conference in Paris, supposedly to provide “in-depth explanation” regarding the two boxers. However, journalists who attended the event reported that the IBA’s explanations were unconvincing, to say the least. The meeting included three representatives from the association, with Kremlev attending remotely. 

Kremlev primarily reiterated his complaints about the Games’ opening ceremony, the IOC and Bach, claiming that the tests conducted showed that Khelif and Lin had “high levels of testosterone, like a man”. However, another IBA representative contradicted him, reiterating that no testosterone tests were conducted, only chromosomal tests, as stated in the association’s official statement. Another claim by the association was that the gender tests for the two boxers were conducted in two laboratories recognized by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but WADA told the BBC that it does not oversee sex-tests, only matters related to doping prevention.

"We don't know what the protocol was, we don't know whether the test was accurate, we don't know whether we should believe the test," said Mark Adams, spokesperson for the IOC, to BBC. Even before that, on the day of Khelif’s first Olympic match, the IOC had published a statement saying that the two boxers “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. [...] The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years”.

Throughout the Olympic Games the IOC repeatedly defended Khelif and Lin's right to participate, consistently condemned the IBA’s conduct, and questioned the reliability of the sex tests the boxers underwent and the conditions under which they were performed. It seemed that IBA’s press conference only served to further convince people that the association is untrustworthy. 

Nevertheless, the chromosomal tests mentioned by the IBA, if they were indeed conducted, sound scientifically valid. So what exactly is the problem with such tests, and why don't they provide a suitable solution?

Cherchez la Femme

The history of sex tests for women in the Olympic Games dates back about a hundred years. In 1928 women were first allowed to participate in races, a sport considered “manly” and unbefitting of them. Initially, there were concerns that this masculine sport would cause women to become more masculine, but those fears quickly shifted to concerns about men impersonating women to compete and win in these tournaments. After all, on average, men have physical advantages over women in height, weight, muscle mass and more. Therefore, to maintain fair competition, it became necessary to separate genders in some sports.

Until 1928 women were only permitted to participate in 'feminine' sports at the Olympic games. Margaret Abbott competing in the golf event at the 1900 Paris Games. | Image from La Vie au Grand Air magazine by an unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

This new concern led to a literal witch hunt. At the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the organization now known as World Athletics (formerly IAAF),  which oversees athletics events, subjected "suspected" women to examinations while they were naked to ensure they were indeed women. This practice continued until 1966, when  all female participants, not just those deemed "suspected, " were required to walk naked in front of medical staff to determine whether their bodies were "feminine enough."   

Starting in 1968 the Olympic Committee switched to sex chromosome identification tests and later to detecting gender-related genes. All women competing in the games were required to undergo these gender tests, and those who passed received a "female identity confirmation document," allowing them to participate.  This is the type of test that the IBA claims to rely on.

However, sports physicians and scientists, including Murray Barr, whose discovery enabled the identification of individuals with two X chromosomes served as the basis for tests until 1992, opposed the chromosomal tests and explained that the differences between sexes are not necessarily so clear-cut. Even genetic tests cannot determine gender with complete certainty. These tests often devastated the lives of women who discovered they had different chromosomes than expected, leading to the sudden and devastating conclusion that they were not "real" women.

Following the firm and prolonged opposition by these physicians and scientists, in 1999 the Olympic committee stopped routine sex testing for all women, and to this day, it opposes the reinstatement of such invasive and imprecise practices. However, different sports federations can establish their own rules for sex testing and women’s participation.

The reason these tests do not necessarily identify men, or more accurately males, is that,  contrary to what you learn in school, not all males have XY chromosomes, and not all females have XX chromosomes. In reality, biology is more complex, with many exceptions to these textbook rules.

The Birth Of A Gender

In a typical situation, a fetus at an early developmental stage has the potential to become either male or female, depending on a complex combination of factors, which includes the activity of certain genes and of hormones that are secreted at critical times during development. 

A few weeks after fertilization, if the fetus has XY chromosomes, certain genes will be activated, initiating a process that ultimately results in a male offspring. A key player in this process is the SRY gene on the Y chromosome, known as the "sex-determining gene."  This gene triggers the activation of many other genes, including those responsible for the development of male gonads - testicles - and suppresses the development of the female reproductive system. The testicles, in turn, secrete androgens, a group of hormones with testosterone as the primary hormone, which drive the development of internal and external male sexual characteristics, such as the penis and scrotum

In contrast, in a fetus with XX chromosomes the combined activity of certain genes leads to development of a female offspring, and in the absence of SRY, drives the gonads to develop into ovaries. The ovaries then secrete estrogens, hormones that induce the development of internal and external female sexual characteristics,  such as the vulva and vagina. During puberty the androgens and estrogens will affect secondary sex characteristics, such as hair growth, voice changes, breast development, and changes in bone and muscle structure.

During puberty, testosterone and estrogen affect secondary sex characteristics. | Illustration: Mahmudul-Hassan, Shutterstock

It is clear, therefore, that there is no single definitive biological factor that determines whether a person will be male or female. Sex determination in the fetus is a process that involves the combined activity of genes, gonads, hormones and the body’s reaction to these hormones. Alterations in any of these factors can lead to a condition known as Differences of Sex Development (DSD), where a person’s sexual development is atypical. This can result in, among other things, a female with XY chromosomes, a male with XX chromosomes, or a person with characteristics that are not clearly male or female. Some experts estimate that about one in every 100 people in the population has DSD, but according to other definitions, it’s one in every 1,000 or even one in every 4,000 people.

For example, once in every few thousand births, a baby girl will be born with only 45 chromosomes: 22 regular pairs and a single X chromosome, a condition known as Turner Syndrome. Individuals with this syndrome are shorter than average, mostly infertile, and sometimes have systemic health issues. They are considered typical females, even though they do not have two X chromosomes and would have failed the sex-tests that were conducted on women in the Olympic Games until 1992. 

In contrast, males with Klinefelter Syndrome would easily pass the tests and could theoretically compete as “women”. The syndrome appears in one to two of every thousand male births, where the baby has an extra X chromosome in addition to a Y chromosome (making him an XXY). Men with this syndrome are mostly infertile, may have a slightly feminine body structure, and are more prone to typically “feminine” diseases, such as breast cancer or osteoporosis.  

Also people with 46,XX male syndrome, formerly known as De La Chapelle Syndrome, have two X chromosomes, but no Y chromosomes. Chromosomally, they are supposedly fully female, even though they have male genitalia. In 80 percent of cases this sex determination occurs because their X chromosome, or sometimes another chromosome, carries the SRY gene - the same “sex-determining gene” that is usually found only on the Y chromosome in most males. Individuals with this condition are always infertile males, and according to new IBA regulations, which consider only chromosomal composition, they could technically compete in women's boxing matches.

Not every person with this chromosomal composition is male. XY chromosomes | Illustration: vchal, Shutterstock

Always A Woman

There are also cases of women with XY chromosomes, like the rumors being spread about Khelif and Lin, and they are not as rare as one might think. A very conservative estimate is that roughly one in 15,500 women have a Y chromosome in some or all of their cells. Sometimes this chromosome significantly influences their bodies and sometimes it has little to no effect. 

One factor that can cause a fetus with XY chromosomes to develop as female is the DAX1 gene, which is located on the X chromosome. If, due to a mutation, there is more than one copy of the gene, these copies can override the effect of SRY gene and alter the course of the fetus’s sexual development towards female. There are many other genes that, when mutated, can lead to a similar outcome. A mutation in SRY itself can also result in the development of women with a male chromosomal composition. This condition is called Swyer Syndrome and women with this syndrome have a uterus and are born females. 

Other “different” women are those with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS). Chromosomally, these women are males, XY, but they have a mutation that makes their body unresponsive to androgens. They develop testicles, which remain inside the body and secrete testosterone at high levels, as in males. However, because their bodies do not respond to these hormones, they develop as females. They are born with female genitalia but lack a uterus and ovaries, and therefore, are infertile.

Spanish athlete Maria Patiño is a woman with complete androgen insensitivity, who failed the sex test in 1985 and was banned from participating in women’s competitions, because she has a Y chromosome, and it was therefore determined that “she is a man”. She refused to leave the competition and her testers leaked the test results. As a result her achievements were erased, she lost her sports scholarship, was abandoned by some of her friends, and was left by her fiancé. Patiño decided to fight the decision. “I knew that I was a woman, and that my genetic difference gave me no unfair physical advantage”, she wrote in The Lancet medical journal. “I could hardly pretend to be a man; I have breasts and a vagina. I never cheated”.

With the help of De La Chapelle, the namesake of “46,XX male syndrome”, American journalist Allison Carlson and other experts, Patiño fought the decision. She won and in 1988 regained her license to compete as a woman, but after three years of not training she could not qualify to the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. 

In the Atlanta 1996 games 3,387 female athletes were sex-tested and eight were found to carry XY chromosomes. Seven of those were women with androgen insensitivity at a level that did not grant them a competitive advantage and were allowed to compete. The eighth woman had another syndrome, but she was also allowed to compete as a woman.

All of the XY women described here are either testosterone insensitive, like Patiño, or their levels are very low and does not grant them any advantage in sport over other women. These women are not males and did not go through puberty as males, with all of the related developments. This is why they do not have the physiological advantages of males, like the fact that they are, on average, higher than females, have larger lung capacity, larger muscle mass, larger heart, more red blood cells and probably better athletic performance (though women are more flexible and have better balance)

If the body reacts to it, it might grant a physical advantage. A testosterone molecule | Illustration: Sergei Kozachko, Shutterstock

Natural Doping

However, some women with differences in sex development might indeed have a physical advantage over other female athletes. For example, androgen insensitivity can be partial rather than complete, meaning that the body does react, to some extent, to testosterone. People with Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS) have XY chromosomes, like women with CAIS, but they may develop in various ways: as females, as males (who in rare cases could be fertile) or with sexual characteristics that are not definitively male or female.   

Females with PAIS have testosterone levels similar to those of males, and their level of sensitivity determines how their body responds to it. They may be barely responsive - like some of the seven women who were not disqualified in 1996; they may be as responsive as other women; or they may have a high enough response level to gain an advantage over “regular” XX female athletes.  In other words, each case should be examined individually, and even when complete mapping of the relevant syndrome is available, the outcome may not always be identical.

Another example can be found in people with a mutation in a gene called 5-alpha reductase. These individuals have XY chromosomes, but are sometimes born with a female appearance, sometimes with altered genitalia, or as males. This is due to the body’s inability to convert testosterone into a much stronger androgen called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Women with this mutation undergo some of the changes typically associated with males during puberty, their testosterone levels may reach those similar to males’, which could potentially provide some type of advantage in sport competitions, though its significance remains unclear. A well-known athlete banned from competing in running events due to DSD is Caster Semenya from South Africa, who won two Olympic gold medals and three world championships in the 800-meter dash before the international athletics association changed its regulations in 2019. Her future participation was prohibited unless she underwent testosterone suppression treatments.

However, high testosterone levels, which might confer an advantage in certain sports, are not exclusive to people with XY chromosomes. For example, women with a DSD called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have a congenital problem with hormone production, which results in overproduction of androgens. These are females with XX chromosomes, but with an excess testosterone, which affects their development during puberty. Even among women with typical sexual development cases of naturally high testosterone levels can be found.  One common cause is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which is characterized by increased androgen production. As expected, studies have shown that this syndrome is more common in athletes compared to the general population. Athletes with this syndrome typically have greater muscle mass and higher bone density than athletes without PCOS. 

Despite the high testosterone levels, which may grant them an advantage over other women, these women can compete in any sport - including boxing - with no limitation and without having their gender questioned. They would only be disqualified in cases of doping, meaning taking testosterone from an external source. Meanwhile, women with XY chromosomes may be disqualified due to their natural testosterone levels, even if  those levels are similar to or lower than those of athletes with PCOS.

The debate regarding testosterone levels became so prevalent that it is easy to forget how unclear it is whether and to what extent, natural testosterone actually confers an advantage. And is it fair to disqualify women with XY chromosomes solely because of the testosterone levels in their bodies, while others with similar or other unique traits are not disqualified?

The world’s best swimmer has a special body structure that grants him an advantage in the pool. Michael Phelps in the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 | Image: Focus Pix, Shuttersport

What Is Fair?

The Olympic Games are a showcase of individuals with unique traits and differences. Former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, widely regarded as the best swimmer in the world, with 28 Olympic medals, has a special body structure that confers him an “unfair” advantage over other swimmers. Even a simple trait such as height can confer a significant advantage, which is why tall individuals are more common in basketball, while shorter individuals tend to excel in gymnastics. The advantage of height and body size is particularly prominent in combat sports, which are not only separated by gender but also by weight, in an effort to make them more egalitarian.

Famous Finnish skier Eero Mäntyranta, who won several Olympic Medals, as well as some of his family members have a mutation related to the activity of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which causes increased production of red blood cells. Former enables the body to supply more oxygen to the muscles, thereby enhancing their performance. While this is a rare mutation in its natural form, anyone can gain similar advantages through doping—by taking the hormone artificially.

Marion Jones, an American athlete that won three gold medals and two bronze medals in the Sydney 2000 games, did use EPO from an external source, and when she was caught, all her achievements and medals were stripped from her. A natural advantage, like that of  Mäntyranta, is considered fair, but a similar advantage achieved through artificial means is considered cheating. This raises questions regarding natural advantages that could lead to disqualification in ways that might seem unfair. 

It is difficult to justify disqualifying certain individuals with special natural abilities, while not disqualifying others. However, finding a solution that allows everyone to compete, especially in combat sports, is not easy. As Linoy Bar-Geffen wrote on Facebook: “There is a difference between non-contact sports and those that involve contact - the risk of the opponent’s wellbeing. No swimmer will suffer brain damage from Michael Phelp’s abnormal feet, but a woman that takes a hit from a skilled man or woman with a man’s physical abilities, without the ability to effectively defend herself, might”.

In one contact sport, boxing, a small study that compared the punching strength of untrained individuals found a significant overlap between the strength of male and female punches, suggesting that you cannot evaluate the strength of a person’s punch or their performance based solely on their gender. In an even smaller study, involving professional boxers, an advantage was found for males, if only in a specific type of punch (“cross”), which is considered one of the stronger punches in boxing. The claim circulating online about “a study showing that male punches are almost three times stronger than female punches” originates from a small study that did not even measure punch strength, but used an irrelevant index. Incidentally, the researcher seems to have a peculiar obsession with punching and evolution. 

The studies do indicate, as we might have expected, that men who developed as males have a certain advantage over women. But since the chromosomal composition of the participants was not tested, no conclusions can be drawn about individuals with DSD.

In many cases, the argument that certain people should be banned is used as a weapon by interested parties. For example, in a different combat sport, judo, when Brazilian Beatriz Souza won the finals against Israeli judoka Raz Hershko, no one accused Souza of not being a woman. However, after Mexican judoka Prisca Alcaraz defeated her Polish opponent, Angelika Szymańska, politicians in Poland claimed that Alcaraz was actually a man, in an attempt to have her disqualified. Szymańska quickly came to her defense, stating that she does not support any form of hate and that all accusations against Alcaraz were unfounded.  

It seems that although the IBA's campaign is targeted against specific women in boxing, some people are willing to accuse any successful female athlete of being a man, hoping to disqualify her and benefit their country.

Mutations in sport:

Cultural Wars

As we have learned, there are women with XY chromosomes, and this does not necessarily guarantee them the advantage of being a "woman with the physical abilities of a man." In contrast, there are women with XX chromosomes, and even men with XX chromosomes,who may have advantages in certain areas over “typical” female women. This is well-established scientific knowledge that has been accepted for decades. Why then is there such controversy surrounding the Olympic boxers and the Mexican judoka? Sadly, the main elements fueling this controversy have less to do with science and more to do with cultural wars and misguided intuitions.

When an average person looks at an athlete like Khelif or Alcaraz, their initial impression might be that they are not looking at a woman. This is not a biological assessment but an aesthetic and cultural one - judgments are made based on factors such as jawline, certain proportions, and more. The fact that these women are not white, and therefore further from the standard of feminine beauty in Western culture and media, also contributes to their being seen as "not women." The accusations against Alcaraz on social media in Poland, for example, boiled down to the claim: “Look who has beaten our Polish athletes, it’s clearly a man!”, accompanied by a photo emphasizing what they perceive as less feminine traits in the Mexican judoka. Media coverage of the controversy often featured images of the athlete chosen to align with the desired narrative.

Such intuitive skeptical impressions, which of course reveals nothing about gender, serve as fertile ground for organizations and individuals eager to weaponize this skepticism and turn public opinion against these athletes. Starting with organizations like the IBA; to national federations and patriotic politicians aiming to support their country’s athletes after a loss; to movements and social media influencers with an agenda.

When campaigns of doubt and disinformation turn these athletes into pawns in the cultural battle against “Wokeness”, scientific knowledge and data regarding the women involved are cast aside in favor of promoting the desired narrative. This allows even Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to claim with completely unfounded certainty in a press conference that “It is a fact that with the testosterone levels present in the blood of the Algerian athlete at the start of the match does not seem fair”. It’s worth noting that neither we, nor the Italian Prime Minister, have any information regarding the boxer’s testosterone levels.   

An Inherent Problem 

To be fair, you cannot disqualify people by “impression”, political agendas, or even their chromosomes. At the very least, you need to know the levels of hormones in their bodies and how their bodies respond to these hormones.When deciding on regulations that limit  a person’s ability to compete, these rules should be grounded in science and data, not in fears and prejudice.

The public debate that developed is not really related to Khelif and Lin. They were defined as females at birth, raised as women, identify as women, and have been competing against other women for years - sometimes losing and sometimes winning. We have no information about their medical status, whether they have DSD, their chromosomal composition, and (even according to the IBA) we don’t know their testosterone levels. We also don’t know why they were tested while Amineva, the undefeated Russian hero, was not, aside from their appearance which some might consider more masculine. 

The inherent problem is the clash between the binary division to “men” and “women” and the much-more-complex biological reality. The simplistic division is particularly problematic when discussing elite athletes, a group that by its very nature includes more extreme cases and rare conditions that confer natural advantages. 

It is important to keep the Olympic Games open to everyone and not exclude people based on ignorance and rumors. Concomitantly, even though it is complex and not always clear how it could be achieved, it is essential to establish fair, science-based regulations that allow diverse women to participate in women’s sporting events, while ensuring the games remain safe and fair.

Sending a message to uphold Olympic principles and refrain from bullying. Imane Khelif after after defeating Luca Anna Hámori from Hungary | Image: ProPhoto1234, Shutterstock

 

Nearing The End

When discussing these regulations and the women who will be affected by them, it's important to remember that these are real people - young women. On Sunday, August 4th, Lin won the women’s 57kg quarterfinals, defeating 34-year-old Svetlana Staneva - the boxer who received Lin’s bronze medal in 2023. Following her loss to Lin, and in a very unsportsmanlike conduct, Staneva refused to shake Khelif’s hand and made an X sign with her hands. Her trainer later put up a sign reading: “I’m XX, save women’s sports”. As we've seen before, he might indeed have XX chromosomes, but it’s doubtful that he or Staneva were subjected to sex-testing. Since then, Lin also won the semifinals, subsequently winning the gold medal. 

On august 3rd, after a full three round match, the judges ruled that Khelif had defeated her Hungarian opponent, Luca Anna Hámori, in the women’s 66kg quarterfinals. Upon hearing of her victory, Khelif teared up and cried out: “I am a woman!”.

"I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles, according to the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes because this thing has effects, massive effects”, she said in an interview with SNTV the day after the fight. “It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that I ask them to refrain from bullying”.

"I am in contact with my family, two days a week”, she added. “I hope that they weren’t affected deeply. They are worried about me. God willing, this crisis will culminate in a gold medal and that would be the best response”. On Friday Khelif won the gold in the boxing finals. 

I wish Khelif and Lin great success and freedom from bullying, and I hope that by the next Olympic Games, fair regulations will be established—based on the best scientific knowledge available. Not on rumors, not on misleading chromosomal tests, and certainly not on shallow or agenda-driven impressions.

 

Thanks goes out to Kulu Or for the help, Linoy Bar-Geffen and Netanel Moshkovich for the assistance with boxing terms, and to Tal Ben Moshe and Eshed Lin for the help with research

Part of this article is based on the entry “Chromosomes, sex and gender” on the blog “Noam’s Ark - Biological thoughts” and about the article “Sex, gender and the Olympic Games” by Ruth Gofen and Noam Leviatan 

The article is based on a publication that first appeared on the blog “Noam’s Ark - Biological Thoughts