The participation of the Algerian transgender athlete has become a case Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics boxing tournament. On the eve of the challenge against the Italian team Angela Cariniin the welterweight category, The Minister of Sport, Andrea Abodi, took a position: “I find it hard to understand that there is no alignment in the parameters of the minimum hormonal values at an international level, which therefore includes European, World and Olympics”, she wrote in a note, in the event that represents the highest values of sport, the safety of male and female athletes and respect for fair competition from a competitive point of view must be guaranteed. Tomorrow, for Angela Carini it will not be like this”.
Another trans boxer, Taiwanese Li-Yuting, will make her featherweight debut on Friday against Uzbek Turdibekova. Neither Khelif in the under-66-kilo category nor Li-Yuting had passed the “gender test” at the boxing world championships, but the IOC admitted both of them, as it had already done at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Lin had won the world bronze in 2023 but was subsequently disqualified, while Khelif was stopped during the world championship in New Delhi for excessively high levels of testosterone: in both cases, DNA tests had revealed XY chromosomes, hence the disqualification to “ensure the integrity and fairness of the competition”.
The Olympics fall under the aegis of the Boxing Unit, which has ensured that “all athletes” participating in the Games’ boxing tournament “comply with the eligibility and competition registration rules” and medical requirements. Doubts remain about the safety of the 25-year-old Neapolitan athlete.
The topic of transgender athletes or those with hyperandrogenism is very slippery: on the one hand the rights of those who ask to express their gender identity in the sports field, on the other the protection of the regularity of competitions and safety especially in a contact sport.
For Abodi, “the issue of transgender athletes is one that must be brought back to the category of respect in all its forms”, but distinguishing “sports practice from competitive sport, which must allow competition on equal terms, in complete safety”. “It is quite clear that the dimension of gender identity in the competitive field raises the issue of equal opportunities or the same opportunities. It is no coincidence that many sports disciplines have placed restrictions on transgender athletes that are necessary to allow them to compete under the same conditions. In this case, we are witnessing an interpretation of the concept of inclusiveness that does not take into account primary and indispensable factors”.
In a note, CONI announced that it had taken action with the IOC “so that the rights of all athletes are in accordance with the Olympic Charter and health regulations.”
The President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, also intervened on the issue: «An Algerian transgender against an Italian woman at the Olympic Games… is it politically incorrect to say that I am rooting for the woman?», he wrote on Facebook.
For the leader of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, who recalled how a Mexican athlete had said she had suffered like never before from the blows of the Algerian, it is «a slap in the face to the ethics of sport and to the credibility of the Olympics»: «Enough with the follies of the woke ideology!», he invoked.
Barry McGuigan, a former Irish boxer who made history in the sport, called the IOC’s decision “shocking”: “Experts in every discipline know very well that there is an advantage and if this is a big advantage, it is clearly not acceptable,” he wrote on X, “it is pathetic that men become women to have an advantage in sport. What are the authorities doing? In boxing or any other combat sport it is criminal. It should not happen.”
Imane Khelif, for her part, dodged the controversy: “My dream is to win the gold medal,” said the 25-year-old Algerian, “if I win, my parents will see the great steps forward in a sporting path that I began as a child. In particular, I want to encourage girls and children who are disadvantaged in Algeria when they start practicing a sport.”