Controversy has rocked once again! This time, it was at the 2024 Paris Olympics in France, with all the attention on Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif (25) after her 46-second clash with Italian boxer, Angela Carini (25) who quit after two punches, saying “its unfair.”
What followed after the two blows on Carini has been nothing short of shocking and raising many questions to go with a heated debate about sexuality and inclusion. Many people have accused Imane Khelif of being a “transwoman”, a “dude” beating up a woman on live television while many reports also recognised her as biological male”.
Social media claims of the Algerian being a trans-woman and a “biological male” were soon dis-confirmed by International Olympic Committee (IOC). In the sport community in particular, there are tendencies that have become much more obvious about our attitudes to this sort of controversy.
- Black and African athletes are targeted and treated as freaks to be kept out of sport.
- women have to undergo gender testing to make sure they were not men trying to cheat the system.
It is the second tendency that this article wants to look at very closely, is the recent controversy also surrounding Lin Yu-Ting from Taiwan. Yu-Ting is said to have been born with a condition known as Differences in Sex Development (DSD). Before exploring this problem, let us look at a subtle one: the colour and the country of origin for a sports player seems to shape attitudes towards them.
South African champion sprinter, Caster Semenya, was running to victory until she was barred from participating in an Yellow Pages Series V Track and Field occasion pending sex verification results by the World Athletics (former International Amateur Athletic Federation). The tests were kept a secret, at some point Semenya was tested by Athletics South Africa under the leadership of President Leonard Chuene, without her knowledge about the purpose of the test, as was the case with the rest of the athletes roped in to disguise the test. Chuene would later resign in time, feeling uneasy over the way Semenya had been treated.
Khelif just like Semenya, is not the only woman in the world to undergo terrible treatment due to having Disorders of Sexual Development (DSD). In fact, one female athlete with an androgen condition, Dutee Chand from India won a case against the Athletics Federation of India and the International Federation of Association of Athletics Federations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), leading to a change in rules governing testosterone levels in women with DSD.
Athletics female bodies are required to administer medicine to suppress certain hormones deemed unfairly high under the new rules adopted in 2019. This applies to women with DSD that:
- heightened androgen sensitivity as such as with Chand or,
- meant for women who have a higher testosterone levels compared to women without the condition.
There is something uncomfortable the world does when it is men that are ‘freak athletes’ as they are called, the case is best illustrated by none other than the ‘human frog’, champion Olympian swimmer, Michael Phelps. The American swimmer has been confirmed to have bigger lungs than normal and has mutated feet which allows him to swim at a faster pace than other men. To top it all, Phelps is said to produce lactic acid at only two-thirds the rate others do, making him tire much slower than his competitors. He was hailed rather than attacked for having features he did not choose.
Commenting on the frenzy that broke out after Khelif beat Carini in 46 seconds, one person posted a video noting that, “When men are bigger and stronger than their competitors and peers, they are applauded but when women are bigger and stronger than their competitors and peers, they’re a man.”
Chand, Semenya, Khelif, Lin Yu-Ting and Serena Williams are some of the women whom society rejects or has rejected as “men” in women’s sport. Science does not confirm testosterone as the sole determinant of increased athletic performance.
Sara Chodosh a journalist observed that “among elite athletes, men seem to have a consistent 10 to 12 percent athletic advantage over women. Lots of people chalk that up to testosterone alone, but the truth is there are many other factors, from other hormones to societal conditioning, might boost athletic performance, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly what testosterone does for athletes.”
The Paris Olympics summed up the kind of hypocrisy the liberal world seems to enjoy, as highlighted by TRT World TV channel in a shop video clip:
Women of course were attacked for being “men” or according to some, “XY women” even though they had qualified to compete at the event. France also banned the hijab worn by Muslim women, forcing them to choose between sports and their religion, Russian athletes were banned from competing in the Olympics due to their government’s war against Ukraine however, Israeli athletes were allowed to participate despite their government currently decimating Palestinians.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Olympics allowed Steven Van de Velde to participate in volleyball even though he’d been convicted for four years in 2016 in his native Netherlands after he confessed to grooming a 12-year-old whom he raped at least three times.
This article is an opinion piece submitted on 14 August 2024. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Karibu! Online or Khanya College. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
