Make Of It What You Will

"[Khelif] was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport."

"This is not a transgender case."

"[The IOC leaves regulations up to each sport's international governing body because] they know their sport and their discipline the best."

"I hope we all agree that we're not calling for people to go back to the days of sex testing which was a terrible, terrible thing to do. This involves real people and we're talking about real people's lives here."

"Many women can have testosterone which will be called 'male levels' and still be women and still compete as women. This idea that you do one test for testosterone and that sorts everything out? Not the case I'm afraid."

IOC spokesman Mark Adams 

"[The boxer was subjected to a] misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign."

"The unjust harassment suffered by the boxing champion will remain the biggest stain of these Olympic Games."

Imane Khelif's lawyer, Nabil Boudi

Images of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting on the medal podium in Paris  BBC

"Just looking at the presence of a Y chromosome on its own does not answer the question of whether someone is male or female."

"It’s obviously a very good marker, as most people with a Y chromosome are male…but it’s not a perfect indicator."

"It wouldn’t surprise me if some people with a type of DSD [Differences of sex Development] had some physical advantage over women." 

"[Those advantages could include larger muscle mass, as well as bigger and longer bones and larger organs such as lungs and heart. They may also have higher levels of blood haemoglobin that lead to improved oxygen delivery to where it’s needed in working muscles]."

"Some people with some types of DSDs might have advantages in some or all of those elements, ranging from 0-100%, depending on the type of DSD and its precise genetic cause."

Prof Alun Williams, genetic factors related to sport performance research, Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport

In the wake of the Olympics staged in Paris just recently, the Paris prosecutor's office received a complaint for aggravated cyber harassment filed by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who fought in women's welterweight. His round with Italy's Angela Carini sparked outrage when she stopped the fight at 46 seconds into their round when Khelif delivered a stunning blow that horrified spectators and alarmed Carini who said she had never before experienced that level of pain and fearing for her life refused to continue the bout.

 

'Testosterone is not the perfect test': IOC on boxer Khelif gender test controversy – video

 

The subsequent filing with the Paris prosecutor was filed with the French special unit for combating online hate speech, leading investigators to consider charges including gender-based cyber harassment and public insult. A tsunami of online attacks, claims Khelif, served to spread false claims questioning 'her' gender. And none other than former president Donald Trump, famed author J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk represented the more well-known and influential among those deriding claims of Khelif as female, although their posts were the mere tip of an iceberg of incredulity that a man was accepted as a woman in female boxing.

The International Olympics Committee would have none of it, identifying Khelif as a woman, despite that the International Boxing Association under Russian chief Umar Kremlev charged that a test administered a year ago to the Algerian boxer revealed XY chromosomes. The IOC a year ago, charging that the IBA was acting as a proxy for Vladimir Putin, cut its association with the group. None of this mattered to Olympics fans and women's groups who were outraged that an individual who reeked of masculinity was passing as a female.

That Imane Khelif's DNA reveals him to have XY chromosomes with male testosterone levels, may be a biological anomaly, but it may also be an indication that these anomalies occur in nature albeit infrequently, and those with these biological differences -- to ensure fairness to women -- should fight in alternate categories that take into account their biological physical characteristics reflective of those of males in bone structure, height, strength and endurance.

Angela Carini leaves the ring after abandoning the bout. Photograph: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

"I am a woman. I was born a woman and was raised a woman, and I compete as a woman."

"My honour is intact now [after beating Liu Yang of China for the welterweight division gold medal]."

"My message to the world -- the whole world -- is hold on to Olympic values and not bully people."

Imane Khelif, Gold Medal Olympian

Everyone Love a Party, Though Some Execrate Them

"But if we think there are risks, depending on our analysis of the context, we have fallback scenarios. There are Plan Bs and Plan Cs."

"[Organizers could decide to shorten the itinerary of the parade on the Seine, and even to] repatriate the ceremony to the Stade de France".

"It's a world first. We can do it and we will do it."

"We want to work towards an Olympic truce and I think it is an occasion for me to engage with a lot of our partners."

French President Emmanuel Macron

President Macron visiting the Grand Palais, which will host some of the Games  Getty Images

France feels it is prepared to deal with the very real possibility of a terrorist attack during the Paris Olympics. It has, after all, experienced a number of such devastating attacks by Muslim terrorists in the past. The show must go on. In Munich, Germany, the host country of the 1972 Olympic Games, it was unlikely that their intelligence service picked up the potential for a terrorist attack; that Black September of the extreme branch of the extremist Islamist PLO would plan an attack leading to the deaths of 11 Israeli Olympians. A half-century has passed but not the danger inherent in the rank hatred of Islamists murderers wreaking mayhem and havoc.

 

The Israeli Olympic delegation parades during the opening of the Munich Olympic Games on Aug. 26, 1972. West German organizers wanted to give the Games a light atmosphere, trying to break from Germany's prior Olympics under the Nazis in 1936.  AFP via Getty Images

Of course it is not only Israel and Jews that excite the hatred and deathly malice of Islamists. Jews first, perhaps, but their focus also turns to the West, and any who spurn their version of Islam, including other Muslims. They reserve the right of their entitlement to martyrdom and the gift of the dead to Islam's rigorous calls to  jihad, their zeal in promoting the benefits of both earning them the loathing fear and terror of those unwilling to become another statistic in the volumes of their lethal exploits.

So, ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, France is of necessity on high security alert. Millions of visitors are expected to be drawn to Paris to glory in the international sportsmanship of competition, but not the gore of slaughter. The unique opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics sees the River Seine the locale of the opening ceremonies. As many as 600,000 spectators were originally envisioned to witness from the riverbanks the 10,500 athletes parading on boats along the Seine, the route to end in front of the Trocadero in the heart of Paris on July 26.

 

Still from video: paris-olympics-splashy-river-seine-curtain-raiser-faces-security-transport-challenges

 

This exceptional opening ceremony involving boats carrying athletes along the Seine on a six-kilometre parade with a huge crowd watching from the embankments has understandably excited security concerns to a  high pitch. France's president has addressed the issue, assuring both his citizens and the world community that law enforcement forces in France will be mobilized to ensure security of the opening event, at a level of alert exceptionality set to match the level of the event itself.

The organizers' ambitious original plans -- in the interests of logistical concerns linked to security -- have been reluctantly and progressively scaled back. Overall number of spectators reduced to 300,000. Despite which, President Macron insists that plans for the opening ceremony remain the same, at least for the present. Repeatedly struck by deadly Islamic State attacks, the most deadly of which was the Bataclan theatre massacre of 2015 when terrorists opened fire on concertgoers, holding some as hostages for hours, is never far from the mind of authorities determined to protect from another like it.

Countdown clock reading 100 days before the Olympics opening in Paris. AP Photo