The misinformation about Imane Khelif and XY chromosomes is hurting everyone

The Olympics should be a celebration: of achievement, of national pride, of coming together. Unfortunately, the 2024 Paris Olympics have been marred by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand how a woman’s body works.

I’m talking, of course, about the ridiculous, hateful backlash surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting. As a refresher (a deeper dive can be found here), Khelif and Yu-ting were banned from the sport in 2023 over “eligibility” tests and were disqualified from the World Boxing Championships just days before the event was set to end. This year, they were allowed to compete in the Olympics. Some people have a problem with that. They are mistaken and ignorant.

First of all, the governing body of the World Boxing Championships is the International Boxing Association (IBA). The IBA used to govern boxing at the Olympics. However, they were banned by the International Olympic Committee in 2021 for being simply too corrupt. You have to take a moment to understand the enormity of this: one of the most widespread accepted corrupt organizations in the world (the IOC) said to another: “Wow, mates, too corrupt, even for us!” So everything the IBA says or does should be taken with a grain of salt. They simply have nothing to do with the Olympics and run their own even more corrupt show the way they want.

Another thing to note is that the IBA has not come out and said which tests the athletes failed; in fact they refuse to! Although at one point they did state that both athletes have Y chromosomes, according to The cutHere is a recent statement they issued on the matter:

On March 24, 2023, IBA disqualified athletes Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi 2023. This disqualification was due to the fact that they did not meet the eligibility criteria for participation in the women’s competition, as stipulated in the IBA regulations. This decision, taken after a meticulous assessment, was extremely important and necessary to maintain the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition.

Please note that the athletes did not undergo testosterone testing, but were subjected to a separate and recognized test, the details of which remain confidential. This test definitively concluded that both athletes did not meet the required criteria and that they had a competitive advantage over other female competitors.

IBA

So, a couple of things about the IBA statement. They also state that Khelif appealed the decision, but withdrew the appeal. Yu-ting did not appeal. As if that means anything? You already have an organization that is so corrupt that the IOC felt confident (despite many of their own bribery scandals – I mean, they are basically blackmailing the US right now not to look into another country’s doping programs) to publicly call them out. Why would athletes bother appealing when they already know the results were rigged?

Since I’ve made a big point about how corrupt the IOC is, you might be thinking that allowing Khelif and Yu-ting to compete is a crazy example of that – except the IOC, when they revoked the IBA’s governance of the sport, created an ad hoc committee to take over called the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU). So, yeah, maybe this is all some big conspiracy, but all signs point to it not being the case. Here’s the IOC/PBU statement on the matter:

The PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a starting point to develop its regulations for Paris 2024. This was to minimize the impact on athletes’ preparations and ensure consistency between the Olympic Games. These Tokyo 2020 rules were based on the post-Rio 2016 rules, which were in place prior to the IOC’s suspension of the International Federation of Boxing in 2019 and subsequent withdrawal of its recognition in 2023.

(…)

These two athletes were victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the 2023 IBA World Championships, they were suddenly disqualified without any form of due process.

According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Council only ratified it later and only then requested that a procedure to be followed in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA “should establish a clear procedure for gender testing.”

Olympic Games.com

It’s worth noting that you can be a cisgender woman and still have a Y chromosome, no matter how many transphobes hide their hatred behind a seventh grade understanding of biology. Science!

At its core, this controversy is misogyny. It’s an excuse for the lesser among us to entertain the worst thoughts they have about people they consider “different” from them. It doesn’t escape my notice that Khelif’s opponent, a white boxer, was interviewed on TV while crying. White women’s tears weaponized once again!

These idiots are also giving themselves away. Just look at what the despicable Piers Morgan has posted on social media:

THE SOLUTION: If any part of your biology is male, you can’t compete with women. The end.

Pier Morgan

I feel like school failed So many people. Biological women naturally produce androgens. Androgens are the hormones typically associated with biological men, such as testosterone. (Piers, if you’re reading this, it works the other way around. Biological men also produce estrogen. The horror!)

This is not about protecting women. If it was, these idiots would be screaming about domestic violence, maternal mortality rates, the wage gap, more money for medical research so women’s bodies are included in studies, and I could go on. This is simply about misogyny, transphobia, and otherness. Let’s not ignore the fact that the people screaming about this are predominantly white, and the athletes are not. It’s disgusting. This isn’t the first time this has happened either. Remember Caster Semenya?

At the center of this fabricated nonsense are two women who trained thousands of hours and undoubtedly made countless personal sacrifices to make it to the Olympics, only to have their entire identities called into question on an international stage by opportunistic bigots who got their facts wrong. It must be heartbreaking, embarrassing and confusing for them. The focus is now on their biological sex rather than their impressive boxing skills.

Furthermore, even if Khelif or Yu-ting have a biological reason that might help them in their sport, I don’t see how that is any different from the body of another elite athlete. You don’t become the best of the best without biological advantages. Michael Phelps had the perfect body for swimming. Simone Biles is the ideal gymnast. If you swap the two, I doubt either would excel in the other’s sport. The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s opinion on Semenya’s participation in the 2012 Games agrees:

Biological variability is one of the reasons we have the Olympics; it should be celebrated, not ridiculed. (…) women with high testosterone (who are often intersex) are singled out (…) because of society’s complicated feelings about gender and femininity.

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Additionally, the same article pointed out that in 2012 there was no scientific evidence that testosterone helps athletes:

“There is no evidence to show that successful athletes have higher testosterone levels than less successful athletes.”

American Association for the Advancement of Science

What we do know is that even the worst among us never miss an opportunity to attack women, especially if they are not white.