You’re not likely to find a winner in this story. In the politics of shame, everyone loses.
By now, the debate surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, one of many controversies from the 2024 Olympics, is a familiar headline. The 25-year-old athlete won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight boxing competition at the Paris Games. After four matches, not one of Khelif’s competitors could even score a point. The result marked only the seventh gold medal in Algeria’s entire Olympic history.
And it never should have happened.
According to reports this summer—and allegedly confirmed by medical assessments this fall—Khelif is indeed genetically male. The International Boxing Association disqualified him from competing in the women’s division, claiming he failed its sex verification test and was found to have XY chromosomes. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach defended Khelif, decrying the “hate speech.” It was all “politically motivated” and a “culture war,” he scolded.
Khelif’s presence in the women’s division became something of a Rorschach test. On the one hand, Khelif had a birth certificate declaring female biology, the IBA was corrupt, the IOC said Khelif was female, and any speculation to the contrary was considered hateful conjecture. Case closed. Stop questioning.
On the other hand, Khelif likely had a developmental sex disorder, Algeria’s laws forbade updating his information, and seeing a female boxer in full men’s wear having physical contact with other men (deeply inappropriate in Muslim cultures) and wearing a groin guard in training seemed odd, at best.
Italian boxer Angela Carini stopped her match against Khelif after 46 seconds because of the physical pain. She refused to shake her opponent’s hand, defiant, convinced she’d been forced into an unfair fight.
Less than 24 hours later, Carini apologized: “If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision. … I was angry. … I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again, I would embrace her.” As to what occurred behind the scenes to effect such a change, we can only guess.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
Katie is director of women’s ministry at Texas Baptists.