A Knot

Where will this post lead me?

I'm going to take my time with it today.

I'm generally not into the Olympics, though I enjoy a good opening ceremony. Didn't watch this one, because there's too much going on in my head. Heard about the row. Maybe they were parodying Van Bijlert's Feast of the Gods - which would make sense because Olympics = Olympians and all that - or Da Vinci's The Last Supper which would also make sense given France's spectacularly anti-religious history. Maybe they were doing both, trying to combine them in a sense of insubordinate art; again, that placing of art before outrage would be very much part of the national cultural identity, though I am never sure if such a thing really exists. I do know that my comfort zone is never more settled than when someone tries to shriek me out of it, and I detest crass manipulation. Yeah, yeah, Dionysus, be as naked as you like, just keep your dck out of the fruit bowl.

Then there's the boxing thing. Hmm.

Finding accurate information about Imane Khelif is very difficult; she was disqualified before her gold medal bout at the Women's World Championships last year when she failed to meet the International Boxing Association's (IBA) eligibility criteria, allegedly due to the presence of XY chromosomes in her bod.

Necessary background: The International Olympics Committee dropped its recognition of the IBA. This year's Olympic boxing is being run by the Paris Boxing Unit which was established on an ad-hoc basis established by the IOC’s Executive Board. The reasons the International Olympics Committee dropped the IBA included questions of potential corruption and lack of transparency, accusations which have also been levelled at the Olympics over many years. Bottom line: Khelif was disqualified by the IBA apparently because of possessing XY chromosomes. The IOC states that Khelif is a woman because it says so on her passport. There must have been (!) medical examinations in both cases to ensure she was eligible, but if they occurred, precisely what form they took is not revealed by either organisation.

There is no suggestion that she is a transwoman, which is just as well as gender transition is illegal in Algeria.

There is the possibility that that she is intersex though this last definition is a moveable feast with no universally accepted standard. I have no idea how or indeed if intersex conditions are defined in Algeria.

Presuming that the IBA isn't entirely making it up and that Khelif has elevated levels of testosterone due to the presence of XY, perhaps the best guess right now is that she may have some form of DSD, possibly akin to that of Caster Semenya. This is different for one immense reason; Semenya ran. Striking sports can kill.

We try to make the best of our lives. If you are born stronger and faster than those around you, why wouldn't you make the most of that? But the fact is that if - big if - Khelif has XY/XXY/XYY chromosomes, it is very dangerous to put her in a ring with XX fighters for the same reason we do not put featherweights in with heavyweights; people may die. Boxing must have levels of like for like because anything else could be fatal. Having said that, Imane Khelif has lost fights against women, albeit few. Her record is impressive but she hasn't thundered across the ring throwing her opponents against walls.

If she has, for example, 5αR2D like Caster Semenya, then awful though it is for her, she probably should not be boxing against genetic females. Safety first always. But if it is decided that she has a DSD condition suffered by genetic males only, how does she go home to Algeria? Will she be respected and kept safe? Does a just decision rely on having private information made public?

The waters have been hopelessly muddied across social media, and I can't say the IOC have helped much. Of course certain information is no-one's business but the Olympics does put one in the public eye. Khelif was bound to end up in this situation. She cannot be surprised.

So having unpicked as best as I can, and recognising that appropriate discernment without more accurate information is impossible, where does this go?

Long term; new tests, classifications may well be needed, new events even.
Short term: independent informed medical tests should be carried out asap. If these indicate Khelif has an unfair advantage, she should be disqualified. If not, all's well.

Something about this still sits ill with me but it's hard to define what that is. Is it down to one competitor being so evidently larger than the other? Is it because I don't want to see anyone on their knees crying? The intrusion of ideology is a stupid diversion and the Olympics currently seem to be more trouble than they are worth. Switching off for a while.