‘Female boxer’ controversy in Caliphate’s women’s division…asking the world what’s fair?

Gender controversy continues to surround Algeria’s “female boxer” Imane Khalif, 26, who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has publicly stated that Khalif was born and raised as a woman, but the controversy is turning into a fairness issue.

Very little “verifiable” biometric information is known about Khalifa.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Khalif for “medical reasons” before the World Championships final in March last year.

This was shortly after she had defeated Russian Azalia Amineva. Taiwan’s Lin Yuting, 28, was also stripped of her bronze medal at the event for the same reason.

The Russian-born president, Umar Klemlev, told TASS that same month that the decision was taken after DNA tests showed Khalif had an “XY chromosome,” which typically means male.

The IBA has not released specific test results beyond this interview.

In response to the latest controversy, it issued a statement saying only that “the two athletes were not tested for testosterone, but separate authorized tests were conducted,” and that “their advantage in competing against other (female) athletes was confirmed.”

There is no way to know the authenticity of the test results, or how much of an advantage they had in terms of testosterone, hemoglobin levels in the lungs, bone density, or anything else, as the IBA maintains “confidentiality.

IOC President Thomas Bach called the IBA “an organization we don’t recognize” for making this decision. He also criticizes the IBA’s disqualification as arbitrary and without due process.

The two organizations have been at loggerheads since the IOC effectively expelled the IBA last year after it was found to be grossly corrupt, with allegations of referee bias, financial difficulties, and match-fixing.

If so, it would be more accurate if the IOC, instead of the IBA, did a full physical examination of Khalifa’s body.

However, the IOC has not conducted chromosome testing during the Olympics since Sydney 2000 due to human rights concerns. And there are no plans to do so during these Games.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams criticized the idea of reintroducing the old testing method at a press conference on February 2, calling it a “minefield.

“Everybody wants a simple explanation, they want it to be black and white how to deal with this,” he said, adding, “There is no such thing. There is no such thing, not even in the scientific community.”

He emphasized that the caliph was born a woman and lived her life as a woman.

The IOC used the phrase “female by passport” to mean that the Algerian society in which she was born and raised recognized her as a woman.

For now, experts are cautious about jumping to conclusions.

However, based on the IBA’s announcement, there is speculation that Khalif may be a DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) athlete.

DSD refers to athletes who are categorized as female but have a disparity in athletic performance due to the fact that they produce significantly more male hormones than normal women.

The most famous example of a DSD athlete is track and field athlete Caster Semenya (South Africa). Many experts estimate his testosterone level to be between 7 and 10 nanograms per milliliter (n㏖/L).

Normal testosterone levels range from 0.12 to 1.79 nanograms per milliliter (nmol/L) in women and 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L in men.

Tommy Lundberg, a researcher at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, was cautious in an email interview with Yonhap, saying that “the exact physical characteristics of Khalif and Lin Yuting are not known.”

“If it is true that he has an XY chromosome and failed the gender test, we have to assume that it is the same case as Semenya,” she said.

Lundberg’s research into the effects of testosterone suppression therapy on muscle mass led World Rugby to become the first organization in the world to ban transgender athletes from international women’s competition in 2020.

He believes that athletes who transitioned from male to female after puberty have gained a “male advantage” in muscle mass, bone density, and more, making it unfair for them to compete with normal women.

But DSD athletes are different from transgender athletes. The question of fairness for DSD athletes is more complicated.

These competitive advantages are not artificially acquired. They don’t know if they have an innate physical advantage due to male hormones.

As such, whether or not it’s desirable for these athletes to compete in women’s events is a matter of debate.

Lundberg believes that it would be a safety and fairness issue for female athletes to compete with DSD athletes who have an advantage that they can’t overcome even if they tried, so she disagrees with the IOC’s ‘passport classification’.

On the contrary, I see these athletes as ‘sporting geniuses’. It’s hard to see them as having an unfair advantage that undermines fairness because it’s not artificially earned.

Michael Phelps, the “emperor of swimming”, has double joints in his wrists, ankles, and elbows, as well as an unusually long upper body and arms for a man of his height (194 centimeters). He was born with swimming advantages.

It”s a prerequisite of sports that athletes can”t compete with the same amount of effort in the same conditions.

Japanese basketball player Yuki Togashi (167 centimeters) and Victor Wembanyama (France – 222 centimeters), who made headlines for their height difference, also have natural advantages in height, arm length, and athleticism.

While the nature of “fairness” in sports is debated, the World Association of Athletics Federations requires athletes like Semenya to lower their levels of male hormones before they can compete in the women’s division.

In 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sided with the federation after hearing the case for nearly three months. It said that the WAAF’s regulations were discriminatory but necessary to protect other female athletes. 바카라게임