The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (the 2024 Summer Olympics) in Paris officially ended on Sunday last and athletes, for the most part, can take a breather, celebrate having won medals, or simply having given of their best. Never without controversy, the spectacle the French branded with the motto “Ouvrons Grand les Jeux” (“Games Wide Open” in English) was subject to a fair amount of imprudent narrowmindedness that seemed to stem from an instance of ‘sore-loserism’.
One did not have to be an Olympics disciple to learn about the harassment and abuse hurled at the current women’s welterweight gold medallist (under-66 kg) in boxing Algerian Imane Khelif. However, for anyone who missed it, a preliminary match on Thursday, August 1 saw Ms Khelif pitted against Italian women’s welterweight boxer Angela Carini. Forty-six seconds into the first round, Ms Carini was hit by a heavy punch to the face that dislodged the chinstrap of her face guard, followed by a series of blows that pushed her back into her corner. At this point she dropped to her knees and chose to throw in the towel. In tears, Ms Carini was later heard saying “this is unfair”, and “I have never been hit so hard in my life”. In an ‘un-sportswomanlike’ miff, she refused to shake her opponent’s hand when the match was awarded to Ms Khelif by the judges. It is worth noting here that there is no record of Ms Carini being injured during that short-lived bout.
What followed can hardly be described in a single sentence, let alone one word, but for now let despicable suffice. Journalists and commentators, broadcasting to the world, immediately began questioning Ms Khelif’s gender and minutes later, uninformed speculation turned into a hate-filled rumour that she was in fact a man. They added fuel to the growing firestorm by pointing out that Ms Khelif and another woman boxer at the Paris Olympics had been disqualified last year by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
According to reports, both young women had entered a boxing competition held in Russia where their gender was questioned. The IBA, dominated by Russians, had claimed that it tested Ms Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and found that they had XY chromosomes and high levels of testosterone, the primary male hormone responsible for reproductive development and secondary sexual characteristics in men. However, when challenged by Ms Khelif and Ms Lin, the IBA could not or would not provide evidence of the tests or results.
Nevertheless, that was not the reason why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reliev-ed the IBA of any organising duties for the Olympics. According to reports, that deed was done since before the 2020 Games in Tokyo where boxing was overseen by a specially appointed team. Nothing changed in the interim and the same situation prevailed in Paris. It has since been reported that the IOC, which is also not a paragon of virtue, has permanently expelled the IBA from the Olympics over longstanding concerns about its governance, competitive fairness, financial transparency and the questionable integrity of its board members.
As all of this swirled, vitriol, mostly directed at Ms Khelif, overtook the internet. Aside from the nasty comments posted under stories on the issue, complete strangers took it upon themselves to post definitively on the infamous X (formerly Twitter) platform as if they had been born in the same hospital as Ms Khelif and grown up as her peers. Many of these posts included unflattering photos of the young woman, which the ignorant used to point out physical attributes such as her muscles and jawline and claim that they defined masculinity.
This occurred despite early protestations by Ms Khelif’s coach, fellow Algerians, the president of her country and the IOC that she had been born female and lived all of her life as a girl and woman. It continued even after Ms Cabrini, whose action in that preliminary round might have started the furore, apologised the very next day and said she would shake Ms Khelif’s hand if they met again.
Days later, usually reputable news agencies were still publishing long-winded features with scientists and so-called experts weighing in on the need for gender testing of women athletes. Abominable. There should be no harking back to the days when the IOC required women athletes to submit to blood and chromosome testing to prove their sex, especially since research has revealed that the effects of testosterone on performance are often overstated.
Let’s be clear, all athletes should be tested for any illegal substances they might have used which give them an unfair advantage over their competitors. No woman athlete who is born female should ever be asked to submit to tests to prove her gender identity. None of her male peers would ever face the same scrutiny, which points to misogyny and further erosion of women’s rights.
The fact is that women can and do better men in physical tasks all the time. However, because they are not doing it at the elite athlete level, they are usually accused of being “like a man” often in a derogatory manner. Some men’s egos will not allow them to admit that they are not always stronger, faster, or more determined, regardless of the chromosomes they possess.
Furthermore, for the record, testosterone occurs in all humans, women who tend to have high levels of it occurring naturally in their bodies owing to unknown genetic flaws, suffer a great deal. Many of these women might have a condition called polycystic ovary (or ovarian) syndrome (PCOS), which manifests with, among other symptoms, insulin resistance, weight gain, infertility, and hair growth on their faces, chests and backs. Not so long ago, in the late 19th to early 20th century, when it was undiagnosed, some women with the condition were paraded as circus freaks, shunned, and considered unfit for marriage. It is now the 21st century and it’s time to let women be.
As regards Ms Khelif, though she scored the ultimate victory over those who maligned her by winning Olympic gold, as she noted in an interview, such abuse can leave mental scars and daunt women’s spirits. Let’s hope, as she does, that this never happens again. There are already far too many contretemps in sports which need fixing.
