Disqualifying Biological Male Competitors From Engaging With Biological Female Sports

"[Khelif and one other boxer failed eligibility criteria to take part in the women's boxing competition after a] recognized test [which] conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors."

"[The decision to disqualify both athletes was made after a] meticulous review."

"[It is] extremely important and necessary to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition."

International Boxing Association (IBA)

 

"Everyone competing in the women's category is complying with the competition eligibility rules. They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case."

"Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination."

"[Khelif and the other IBA-disqualified athlete were] victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA."

International Olympic Committee (IOC)

 

"Federations need to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness, but at the same time with the ability for everyone to take part who wants to."
That's a difficult balance. In the end it's up to the experts for each discipline. They know very well where there is an advantage, and if that is a big advantage then that is clearly not acceptable."

"But that decision needs to be made at that level."

IOC spokesman Mark Adams

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif poses for a portrait with her/his Olympic gold medal in Paris, France, on Aug. 10, 2024.   Annice Lyn—ANOC/Getty Images

 

Algerian-born Imane Khelif, whose exploits in the boxing ring -- competing against female boxers with the muscular strength of a male, although his birth certificate attests him to have been born female -- infuriated women who saw him as a male, with all the physical characteristics of a male, has finally been outed as a bona fide biological male. A male who presented as female, enabling him to enter the competitive boxing arena as a legitimate contestant in the female boxing category.

 

Once there, his superior physical strength, reach, and stamina saw him outboxing his female competitors who, like him, had trained for years for that opportunity to show their mettle as boxers. Unlike him, however, their strength and physical characteristics were those of legitimate biological females, unable to stand up against the punching capacity of a biological male. It was an open secret among women that they would enter the ring against a male insisting he was female.

 

Imane Khelif won welterweight gold at the Olympic Games in Paris last year   Getty Images

 

Science writer Colin Wright and U.S. sports journalist Alan Abrahamson had posted an image of Khelif's 2023 sex confirmation reports, performed by Dr. Lal Path-labs in New Delhi before the 2023 International Boxing Association Women's World Boxing Championships.  And nor was this the first instance where Khelif failed female sex confirmation tests -- "chromosomal analysis reveals male karyotype (XY chromosomes)" -- the same test was administered by IBA in 2022 in Istanbul. 

 

In the wake of the leaked test results the World Boxing Association stated it would follow the IBA to introduce its own mandatory sex testing for all boxers in the interests of ensuring participant safety and a competitive playing field leveled for both men and women. Khelif "will not be allowed to participate in the female category at the Eindhoven Box Cup or any World Boxing event until Imane Khelif undergoes sex testing", the WBA stated.

 

Two major boxing associations have chosen in honour of the sport and bowing to the demands of a level playing field, to back sex-based eligibility so that biological females no longer are faced with having to compete against biological males. And no longer would they be accused of whining and making unfair judgements against male competitors posing as female boxers. 

 

At a time when knowledge of Imane Khelif's real biological status was readily available, but shunned by the IOC as inconvenient to their progressive ethos of honouring those claiming to be female despite their biological status as males, China's Yang Liu fought Khelif who handily defeated her for the gold medal in women's welterweight boxing at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.

 

Prior to their match, IBA released a statement of concern that the IOC's "inconsistent application of eligibility criteria" was forcing women once again to enter a competitive ring when there existed an obvious competitive disadvantage in facing off against a biological male; the enterprise completely compromised.  

  

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif poses with the gold medal in the women's 66kg boxing at the Paris Olympics during the awards ceremony on Aug. 9, 2024. Photo by AP

"I am fully qualified to take part in this competition."

"I am a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman. I have lived as a woman."

"I competed as a woman -- there is no doubt about that."

Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif 

 

"If someone is born with XY chromosomes and internal testes due to a DSD [disorders of sexual development] like 5-ARD (5-alpha reductase deficiency), then the sex recorded on their birth certificate is a clerical error -- not a truth that must shape our sporting policies."

Colin Wright, evolutionary biologist, Manhattan Institute Fellow