Paris Olympics allows male boxers to fight women

Two boxers who were disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championships for being biologically male are due to fight against women in the Paris Olympics.

Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan competed in women’s competitions until the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) DNA tests revealed they had male chromosomes. The organisation has since been suspended over governance issues, and the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit allowed them to enter the Olympics.

Neither boxer claims to be transgender or admits that they have an intersex condition.

Disqualification

Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended its eligibility requirements, its internal system admitted that Khelif was disqualified from a gold medal match at the 2023 world championships after “elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria”.

In addition, the IOC acknowledged that Lin was stripped of a bronze medal “after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test”.

IBA’s President Umar Kremlev believed the results exposed “athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women”.

‘Injury or death’

The Daily Telegraph’s Chief Sports Writer Oliver Brown highlighted that men have “90 per cent increased bicep strength and 162 per cent greater puncher power. To spell this out, this means that a man’s average punch has over 2.6 times the force of one delivered by a woman.”

He emphasised: “It feels inadequate to argue that the longer this goes on, the higher the chance there is that someone will be seriously hurt. In boxing, the evidence is plain that if you do not enforce the most stringent rules in prohibiting male advantage against women, someone could be killed.”

Marshi Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports added: “The physical abuse of women on an Olympic stage eliminates the integrity of all Olympic events and risks lifelong injury or even death for female athletes. This deceit cannot be allowed to continue.”

Drag show

The Paris 2024 Olympics has become mired in controversy after its opening ceremony featured a “highly-sexualised” LGBT–themed catwalk.

Widely seen as a parody of Leonardo DaVinci’s depiction of the last supper, organisers tried to defend the drag queen–laced performance as a celebration of “diversity” and “tolerance”.

Paris Olympics spokeswoman Anne Descamps claimed there was no intention to “show disrespect to any religious group”, adding: “If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”