Boxing Controversy – It’s Hard Not to Weigh In
We live in challenging and intellectually interesting times, especially in sport. Controversy at the Paris Olympics began on August 1, 2024, when Italian boxer, Angela Carini, after taking two blows to the head and fearing a broken nose, gave up after 46 seconds against her Algerian opponent, Imane Khelif. Since that fight, Khelif has been embroiled in an ongoing, and often misleading, argument about her biological sex.
What do we know about Imane Khelif? She was identified as female at birth. She was raised as a girl. She is definitely not transgender, which is further supported by the prohibition against gender transitions and trans identity in her native country, Algeria. She has 43 wins (four later disqualified), six of those wins by knockouts and nine losses.
Interestingly, her father didn’t approve of her boxing because he didn’t think girls should box, so Khelif and her mother sold food and scrap metal, which her father wasn’t aware of, to pay for her boxing training. Her father is now defending his daughter in this Olympic controversy and calling the attacks against her immoral.
In the normal course of sport, all of this would be handled by an overarching international sport federation, except that boxing doesn’t have one. The International Boxing Association (IBA) used to have this job but last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA of its boxing status. One of the reasons why the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA was over the IBA’s lack of financial transparency. The source of the IBA’s prize money was unclear, especially after the IBA fell under the management of a new president from Russia. He brought in Russian energy giant Gazprom, a banned entity, as a major sponsor. There were also allegations of corrupt judges and match fixing.
Despite being expelled from the Olympic family, the IBA still governs outside of the boundaries of the Olympics. The IBA sparked the controversy by banning Khalif from the 2023 world boxing championship.[1] At that time, the IBA stated that the boxer had “competitive advantages over other female competitors” and talked about a “recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.” It is noteworthy that Khelif was disqualified in the middle of the 2023 world boxing championships, a few days after she had defeated the up-and-coming Russian boxer, Azaliia Amineva.
At the Paris Olympics, the IOC ran the boxing events and it has condemned the attacks against Khelif on social media. Furthermore, the IOC spokesman, Mark Adams stated that, “[The IBA] tests are not legitimate tests. The tests themselves, the process of the tests, the ad hoc nature of the tests are not legitimate.” The IBA never provided the name nor any details about its secret test, which prompted the foregoing statement from the IOC.
Now that the Olympics have concluded is this the end of this controversy? Far from it. The discussion now turns to athletes with traits known as differences in sex development (DSD) or intersex. DSD traits include sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, and/or chromosome patterns that may not fit the typical definition of male or female. I don’t know if Khelif has DSD traits but given the Olympic controversy, there is now wild speculation that she does.
There are differences between athletes with DSD traits and transgender athletes. Having DSD traits is naturally occurring unlike someone transitioning from being a male to a female. For example, Caster Semenya, a middle-distance runner, is a DSD athlete whereas Lia Thomas, a swimmer, is a transgender athlete. Semenya has naturally occurring high testosterone levels. Thomas gained lasting physical advantages from male puberty despite hormone blockers. Just like DSD is different from transgender, so are some of the rules.
Under the World Athletics rules, for example, athletes with DSD traits have to reduce their blood testosterone level to below 2.5 nanomoles per litre.[2] They must also have a blood testosterone level below the new limit for two years before being allowed to compete in the female category of any track and field event. For those already competing, they have to remain under the new threshold limit for six months before being allowed to compete again. World Aquatics Competition Regulations allow athletes with 46 XY DSD eligible to compete in World Aquatics competitions and to set World Aquatics World Records in the men’s category, regardless of their legal gender, gender identity, or gender expression.
Turning to transgender athletes, some top-tier Olympic sports have banned transgender women who have been through male puberty from competing in women’s races. World Aquatics was the first to ban transgender women, followed by World Athletics,[3] the International Cycling Union, the British Triathlon Federation and the International Rugby League. The argument is that these transgender athletes have potentially gained lasting physical advantages from male puberty. Natural male advantages, including bone structure, heart size, and lung capacity, are not eliminated by hormonal therapy, especially if the transition is post-pubescent. The International Cycling Union highlighted, “It is also impossible to rule out the possibility that biomechanical factors such as the shape and arrangement of the bones in their limbs may constitute a lasting advantage for female transgender athletes.” World Athletics and the British Triathlon Federation have since created an “open” category for which transgender athletes would be eligible.
So, where does that leave us today? It appears that in certain elite sports where a transgender athlete endowed with post-pubescent physical attributes that provide a competitive advantage will be banned from competing with women in that particular sport. I think for athletes with DSD traits, however, it’s currently a “wait and see”. After an unsuccessful challenge of World Athletics DSD regulations[4] at the Court of Arbitration for Sport followed by an unsuccessful appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Semenya took her challenge to the European Court of Human Rights (the European Court). In a narrow 4-3 decision, the European Court held that the DSD regulations had discriminated against her and infringed on her human rights but did not overturn the DSD regulations themselves, which remain in effect. The narrow decision reflects the diverging views of the judges on jurisdiction. The majority held the European Court had jurisdiction because the case fell within the jurisdiction of Switzerland and was therefore within the European Court’s jurisdiction, so the obligation to respect human rights under the European Convention applied to this case. The minority disagreed and held that there was insufficient foundation to extend the European Convention to a sports dispute between a non-European athlete and World Athletics, a private law association with its seat in Monaco. After a request from the Swiss government, Semenya’s case was referred to the European Court’s Grand Chamber in November 2023 for a final ruling. We await this decision.[5]
Despite what the Grand Chamber’s ruling may be, I think the regulations on athletes with DSD traits or transgender athletes will be the decision of each international sports federation to determine. In some sports, it may not matter. I still remember watching 67-year-old Canadian, Ian Millar in a jump off with 20-year-old American, Reed Kessler to claim the $1.5 million CP International equestrian competition at Spruce Meadows on September 14, 2014. Millar beat Kessler by 2.17 seconds. In equestrian sports, men compete against women and older equestrians compete against younger equestrians. I doubt that an equestrian with DSD traits or transgender equestrians would have any significant or consequential impact on the outcome of an equestrian competition.
In other sports where there is serious risk of harm to another athlete, the rules may have to be different. Boxing has weight divisions to prevent mismatches between opponents, create a safer environment for competitors and have fair fights. Will boxing eventually have an open category for athletes with DSD traits and transgender athletes? I don’t know but the fate of boxing at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles is uncertain. Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC would like to include boxing, but he said that national boxing organizations must form a new governing body to replace the IBA. For now, boxing is not included in the LA Games, which leads us to another “wait and see”. I don’t know, if and when, there will be a new boxing federation that will have to consider this controversy.
In the meantime, we must remember that Khelif is a person deserving of respect and dignity. Heinous social media posts about Khelif are not helpful to this discussion. Effective dialogue is.
[1] The IBA also banned the Taiwanese boxer, Lin Yu-ting for allegedly the same reason as Khelif. This blog focusses on Khelif only.
[2] These regulations came into force on March 31, 2023 and are stricter than the previous regulations on athletes with DSD traits.
[3] Similar to athletes with DSD traits, World Athletics prohibits any athlete that records a testosterone level above 2.5 nanomoles per liter for at least two years from competing.
[4] Semenya challenged the 2018 DSD Regulations, which prevented athletes with DSD traits from competing in middle-distance competitions. On March 31, 2023, World Athletics expanded its regulations to include all track and field competitions.
[5] For a fulsome analysis of Semenya’s case, I recommend Alexandria Anthony’s article of October 27, 2023 entitled, “Caster Semenya’s victory at the ECHR: A landmark case for athletes’ human rights.”