IOC’s naked gaslighting exposed for world to see

Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng, left, and Algeria's Imane Khelif compete in the women's 66kg semi-final boxing match during the Paris Olympics. Picture: AFP

These Olympics have been the emperor with no clothes moment.

For years, the International Olympic Committee has been shouting “there is nothing to see here”.

With haughtiness worthy of a gold medal, females around the world have been gaslit, ignored at best, and actively discriminated against at worst.

Just last week the world’s media was told to “dial it down”.

This, of course, surrounds the apparently vexing issue of “what is a woman?” which culminated in the spectacle of last night, and tonight in the boxing ring, where the women’s category has lost all credibility.

For some time, female athletes have been horrified at the IOC stance which allows competitors with XY chromosomes, and trans women – even those who only self-identify – to compete in the women’s category.

The IOC, with all of its lofty goals of creating gender parity, has spectacularly failed all women. Have female on your passport? Come on in, it says.

And now, when boxers who are banned by the International Boxing Association because of their genetic XY male profile are winning Olympic medals – in the case of these Games, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and TaiLin Yu-Ting of Chinese-Taipei – the truly dystopian world of Thomas Bach’s organisation is brutally and horrifyingly unveiled to the wider world.

Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting and Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman. Picture: AFP

Not content with having biological men, with all of their physical advantages, dominant in a sport like weightlifting – in Tokyo the 42-year-old biological male Laurel Hubbard competed as a woman – here in Paris, the powerbrokers are not worried that XY men smash noses and put women’s safety at risk.

The lack of concern for females under the cover of pushing a hotly contested ideology is utterly obscene.

Fiona McAnena from Sex Matters says the issue has broken through into the mainstream and many non-sports fans are now highly concerned.

“This is a catalyst that something isn’t right,” she said.

“They think ‘I don’t understand and someone should sort it out’.’’ That the Olympic bosses haven’t been making women’s sport safe for competitors could not have been worse timing.

Even while the Paris Olympics have been a magnificent success, the brand of the Olympic movement has taken a hit at a time the groundwork is being laid for some of the biggest post-2032 television rights deals.

Two canary in the coalmine moments have made negotiators nervous. Fresh in the mind is the plateauing of football television rights in the United Kingdom and the fracturing of viewing habits.

At the same time there is widespread consumer backlash to overt trans promotion of brands.

If anything will bring the IOC back from its outrageous positioning, it will be money.

Some of the bigger international federations have already done so: World Athletics has had to navigate the Caster Semenya case for decades; World Aquatics stopped the biological male Lia Thomas from competing at these Games; and even World Weightlifting has quietly tightened its ­eligibility.

But smaller sports are still reliant on the IOC, and its benevolence, for substantial monies.

Which brings us to the IOC presidency. Bach is supposed to step down in March after finishing the 12-year term limit but there are suggestions he wants to change the rules and extend for another four years to ensure a succession plan is in place. (How ironic, his preferred candidate Kirsty Coventry is currently pregnant).

World Athletics boss Seb Coe is canvassing the numbers, and he has a particularly pro-female line, believing the women’s category is for XX athletes only, having seen XY athletes sweep the podium of the Rio Olympic 800m race.

It has taken decades for the Olympics to get a handle on the drugs in sport debacle after the Ben Johnson scandal in Seoul in 1988. And now on Bach’s watch he has trashed the women’s category to the point female boxers have no idea of the sex of the people they are contesting.

His reasoning that XY athletes aren’t that good has been exposed for the outrageous mistruth that it is. How extraordinary, then, that a 19th century fairytale where villagers go along with a pretence that the naked emperor is indeed clothed has been revisited.

The little boy’s incredulity was the moment when the Italian fighter had her nose broken in the ring. The bare truth for Bach is no one is fooled at all.