Paris Olympics 2024: XY factor puts Games in turmoil

The International Olympic Committee has been forced to defend two boxers in the women’s competition after a gender row erupted at the Paris Games.

The International Olympic Committee has hit back at the gender storm erupting at the Paris Games.

The IOC has been forced to defend two boxers in the women’s competition who failed gender eligibility tests last year.

“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the eligibility criteria,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters.

“They are women in their passports and it’s stated that is the case, and they are female.

“These athletes have competed many times before for many years. They haven’t just suddenly arrived.”

Athletes and coaches fear someone could be killed after two boxers kicked out of women’s boxing previously because of high testosterone levels and XY chromosomes now have the opportunty to once again compete in the sport at the Paris Olympics.

One of Australia’s leading boxing coaches, Fidel Tukel, who manages Australian female world champion Che Kenneally said “a female could get killed or seriously hurt fighting a man ... This is a disgrace. How can this happen at the Olympics?”.

Australian boxing legend Jeff Fenech has slammed the IOC and warned it was playing with fire and could witness a tragedy in the ring.

“What has this world come to,” Hall of Fame great Fenech said. “Listen, I’m all for women’s boxing, but do people understand the damage that can be done if men fight women?

“Put Mike Tyson in the ring with a female heavyweight and she will end up not just concussed, but with brain damage.

“My message is if you allow this to happen – watch out. Men and women are built differently.

“If I hit a woman outside the ring, I would end up in jail. It’s madness.”

Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan will compete in boxing despite controversy.

Alerian boxer Imane Khelif will box in the women’s category.

This comes as an Australian academic working for the International Olympic Committee has controversially advocated that even biological males who identify as women should compete as women in the Olympics.

Madeleine Pape, an Australian former middle distance Olympian, and the IOC’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion specialist told Welsh BBC: “The IOC recognises that trans women are women. We need to get away from an abstract debate that sees this as potentially calling into question the existence of a women’s category altogether.”

This IOC position supporting trans activists, is at odds with feminist, lesbian and gay groups and major sporting federations, such as rowing, athletics and swimming, who have tried to protect the female category for biological women.

Controversyhas erupted around the IOC allowing a handful of competitors with “differences of sexual development” to compete, including Zambian forward Racheal Kundananji. Picture: Valery Hache / AFP

At these Games there are no known trans women competing, but controversy has erupted around the IOC allowing a handful of competitors with “differences of sexual development” and high testosterone levels to participate in the women’s competitions.

They include Zambian forward Barbra Banda who scored a hat trick and striker Racheal Kundananji, who posted two goals in Zambia’s 6-5 loss against the Matildas.

Both players were banned from playing in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2022 after “failing gender eligibility tests”. They were allowed to play in the World Cup and the Olympics after football’s governing body allowed teams to conduct their own tests.

Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan had been thrown out of the world championships in Delhi last year amid questions over their testosterone levels and their biological sex but will box in the women’s category on Thursday and Friday.

Umer Kremlev, the president of the International Boxing Association said that DNA tests ordered at the time, showed that the two had XY chromosomes.

He said the athletes were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women and refused them permission to compete. But the IOC, which has taken over control of the boxing competition has dismissed concerns from competitors that someone with DSD could kill an opponent because of their raw power.

Turkel said any combat sport in this scenario “would be the most dangerous”, highlighting the power differential. “It is 100 per cent wrong,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what hormone replacement they might have, if they have any male characteristics, what do you think can happen in the ring?

“I have a female world champion in Che Kenneally and there’s no way I would let her fight a man.

“Claressa Shields is one of the best female fighters in the world and she got knocked out cold in sparring by a male with a left hook.”

It has been reported that Khelif and Lin are not transwomen, but are categorised as DSD athletes, born with a variation of the usual XY male chromosomes, similar to South African runner Caster Semenya.

The issue of genetic differences has plagued the Olympics in the past two decades. Semenya has a condition which impacts male sexual characteristics and while she has one X and one Y chromosome, the male testes are internal.

Brought to you by

She initiated various court battles for the right to run as a woman and to contest rules requiring her to lower her testosterone levels.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics, athletes with differences in sexual development Margaret Wambui of Kenya and Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba took medals in the women’s 800m.

Olympic football commentator Lucy Zelic has questioned the integrity of allowing Zambia to field players previously banned for failing gender eligibility tests. Zelic said on X: “We are entitled to ask questions. We are entitled to know why the failed gender verification tests conducted in 2022 were completely ignored by FIFA in 2023 and continue to be ignored in 2024.

“That the International Olympics Committee do not (sic) have ‘as strict’ rules when it comes to gender testing is also a slight on the credibility of the organisation and the sports being contested.”

While international sports federations have battled for fairness for female athletes, the IOC has been pushing that trans women should be able to compete against women.

Ms Pape has argued that sports should “focus on the human beings who are at the centre of this debate”, despite scientific evidence showing that trans women have trained benefits if they transition after puberty, as well as skeletal advances.

She added: “The trans women I know are not interested in manipulating their testosterone levels in ways that could give them a performance advantage. Why is that? Typically, a trans woman who has chosen to affirm her gender medically, hormonally, is doing everything she can to realise the body that aligns with her identity.

“The international federation works with the athlete to make sure that testosterone levels as needed are realistic, that they don’t put an undue burden on the athlete.

“When it comes to offering an open category as an alternative to men’s and women’s categories, that’s not currently on the agenda.”

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024: XY factor puts Games in turmoil