Boxer Imane Khelif: The questionable dealings with the gender question

The case IMANE KHELIF again rummages the boxing world. And not only that: The debate about the gender of the Algerian boxer, who won the gold medal in Paris last year, has an effect beyond boxing. It is about the fundamental: how to deal with intersex boxers and athletes who see themselves as women, as Khelif does but have muscles like a man?

The debate is currently cooking again because Olympic champion Khelif, 26, was excluded by a boxing tournament in the Netherlands. The responsible association World Boxing recently introduced genital tests that Khelif has not undergone.

Not everyone liked that. “The decision to exclude IMANE is not ours. We regret this,” said the media director of the tournament, Dirk Renders, the AP. The mayor of Eindhoven said similarly: “As far as we are concerned, all athletes are welcome in Eindhoven. To exclude athletes based on controversial gender tests does not go well with it,” wrote Eindhoven’s Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem in a letter to the Dutch Boxing Association and the International Association. He asked the organizers to invite Khelif to the event at least.

Last summer the situation for Khelif was different. Olympia was open to her. This was due to the fact that the International Olympic Committee under President Thomas Bach was responsible for the execution of the Olympic boxing competition, and not a connected by the IOC. Bach stated that the sex entered in the passport is decisive: “She was born as a woman, grew up as a woman, grew up a passport as a woman and fought competitions as a woman.” Khelif sees himself as a woman, and not as a transgender (which she is not), as she later emphasized.

Bach defended the participation of the boxers Khelif and Lin-Yu Ting from Taiwan so consistently because the athletes were exposed to violent hostility on social media. A wave of hate spilled through the net, led by celebrities such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling (“A man who beats women”) and the notorious Elon Musk. The debate was significantly fired by the Italian boxer Angela Carini, who had given up against Khelif in the first round of the Paris tournament after 46 seconds and refused to hold the handshake. After that there was no stopping, heavy guns were raised on both sides of the line of argument. Carini later apologized and defended her opponent against the verbal attacks. It was all a misunderstanding.

To the background, you have to know that in the past the Boxing Association IBA was responsible for the organization of the Olympic tournament, but was suspended by the IOC in 2019 for various scandals. The IOC therefore organized the boxing tournaments in Tokyo and Paris on their own. If the IBA had been responsible for Paris, there would have been no trouble because the association in turn excluded Khelif 2023 from the World Cup after a gender. But the IOC represented a different view in the question and let Khelif box, although the IBA had passed on the test results to the IOC.

After the IBA from the IBA, World Boxing is now responsible for the Olympic boxing. The introduction of a gender test by the young association, which was only founded in 2023, is equivalent to the face of the IOC, the view of which is counteracted. According to the current status, Khelif will not compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

But what dealing with intersex athletes is appropriate? So far there are almost no regulations. In addition to World Boxing, only the IAAF TESTS of IAAF tests. If the limit of five nanomol testosterone per liter of blood (NMOL/L) is exceeded in the body, athletes are blocked. The most prominent example is the South African medium -distance runner Caster Semenya. The testosterone value of the two -time Olympic champion over 800 meters was beyond the border, but she refused to reduce it with medication. Since then she has been excluded from competitions on her house.

Strangely enough, the IAAF rule only applies to the medium-sized distance because muscle strength and a larger number of red blood cells were particularly important, the IAAF argues. In this case, the International Sports Court of CAS made a meaningful judgment: With 2-1 judges, the court confirmed Semenya’s view that discrimination was “but” necessary and proportionate to protect the integrity of female athletics “.

At World Boxing, on the other hand, the male y chromosome is searched for. If it is determined, the athletes are blocked, like now. In addition, nothing is known about gender or hormone test for other associations or in other sports.

But how meaningful are the investigations? A fundamental problem is that intersex occurs in more than 80 different shapes and forms. “There is not the interlexive person. The concept of intersex describes people with biological variations of gender development. And they are incredibly diverse and heterogeneous,” said sociologist Dr. Dennis Krämer the “Sportschau”. Questions of the proportion of talent, training, external conditions and socio -cultural conditions are not answered by the investigations. The debate will continue.