I am going to step well outside the boundaries of my expertise today; I am not a biologist; the last time I took a biology course was in my senior year of high school – – soon after the completion of Stonehenge. What follows here is opinion based on a flimsy and time-worn basis of understanding.
In the Paris Olympics, there is an Algerian woman boxer, Imane Khelif, and she is causing a controversy. I could have put the word “she” in the previous sentence within quotation marks because it is her gender that came under question. In her opening bout, Khelif won by a TKO in less than a minute when her opponent gave up. Here is a thumbnail of the backstory:
- Khelif has participated in international boxing competitions in the past. She competed in the women’s division and was assigned “female gender” at birth.
- Khelif has been banned from competition sanctioned by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for having failed a “gender test.” That test has been characterized as a “DNA test” which sounds authoritative to someone like me who has no background in biology.
- The IOC ruled that she was eligible to compete in women’s boxing this year because her birth certificate and her passport say that she is a female. That seems fair enough – – until you recall some of the Bulgarian and East German “female competitors” whose documents said the same thing about 50 years ago.
- Normally, the IOC defers to the sanctioning bodies of individual sports on questions of rules and eligibility and matters of that sort. However, there seems to be a longstanding and simmering “feud” between the IOC and the IBA that could play a part here. Boxing as a sport is a hotbed of corruption; the IOC is hardly a paragon of virtue as an institution; it seems to me that the situation at hand is “Corruption-squared”.
My bottom line here is simple and straightforward:
- I do not know if Imane Khelif is a female or a male – – but it is important for someone somewhere to make that determination based on scientific evidence.
Months ago, when I ranted about Lia Thomas dominating women’s college swimming after transitioning from a male to a female post-puberty, I explained that there is a biological anisotropy that exists between mature men and mature women. Men – on average – are larger, stronger and faster than women. There is no bias or profiling in that statement; that is simply based on observations and data. Consider athletic achievements at the top level of sports for men and for women.
- Men run faster. The men’s 100-meter dash record is 9.58 seconds. The women’s 100-meter dash record is 10.49 seconds.
- Men run faster longer. The men’s marathon record is 2 hours and 35 seconds. The women’s marathon record is 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds.
- Men are stronger. The men’s shotput record (16 lb. lead ball) is 77 feet, 3.5 inches. The women’s shotput record (8.9 lb. lead ball) is 74 feet, 2.75 inches.
- Men are stronger. The men’s javelin record (800 grams or heavier) is 98.48 meters. The women’s javelin record (600 grams or heavier) is 72.28 meters.
Here’s the point. If a male who has gone through puberty and then trained to become an elite athlete is allowed to compete against females who have gone through puberty, the male will have a clear and distinct advantage. In the case of swimming or running or field events as noted above, the “injury” to the women competitors is that they are trying to beat someone who has an advantage not available to them. We can acknowledge that is unfair and that it conveys frustration upon the women, but that is the extent of the injury.
In boxing, the stakes are higher. Boxing is properly characterized as a “combat sport”; the entire objective is for each competitor to try to render the opponent senseless for a period of 10 seconds or more. There have been some famous Olympic boxers in the past whose names will ring bells with sports fans even if they are not boxing fans:
- Muhammad Ali
- Oscar de la Hoya
- George Foreman
- Joe Frasier
- Sugar Ray Leonard
The thought of watching any of those men in a serious boxing match against a woman is frightening and repulsive. That is why someone, somewhere needs to determine if Imane Khelif is a man or a woman and then that someone somewhere needs to apply that standard to every person who seeks to compete in boxing. I would prefer it if that same determination based on that same evidence applied to other sports such as swimming or track and field, but it seriously needs to apply to boxing.
Recall my description of this situation as “Corruption-squared”. Even if I had in hand the definitive test that was accepted by biologists, medical practitioners, feminist groups and sports fans everywhere, I think there would still be reluctance at best and refusal most likely by one or both of the IBA and/or the IOC.
Finally, these words from author Robert Kiyosaki:
“Life isn’t fair. It never will be. Quit trying to make it fair. You don’t need it to be fair. Go make life unfair to your advantages.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………