Olympic boxing row: what happened next (from the Guardian)

[Keenovay]

Good grief - a factually accurate article in the Guardian about the Olympics boxing row. Hang the witch!

I opened this article with trepidation but was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't conflate the controversy with trans or race issues as so many news outlets did repeatedly over the summer. I also enjoyed the wry reference to Khelif's "hero's welcome" hidden in plain sight in the opening paragraph alongside the required female pronouns.

Also the reference to "registered female at birth" - underlining the fact that Khelif's status is purely administrative.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/dec/28/after-the-show-what-happened-next-to-olympic-gender-row-boxers

Well butter my crumpets! Sorry we were binge watching Wallace and Gromit this Christmas. But that is pretty shocking out of the Guardian. Will next year be the start of something big I wonder. Like they're flying a kite just now to test the wind.....

The last paragraph

As the golden year of 2024 closes for Khelif and Lin, there must remain then some doubt over whether either boxers will fight again – or at least in what arena. But, to the loud consternation of many, they will always have those memories of coming home.

The damage has been done. There are two women who should have those gold medals, the plaudits, the high profile, the opportunities. They've been stolen from them forever.

Also four journalists from the Association Press, out of seventy four, voted for Khelif as female athlete of the year

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-14226733/Gender-furor-erupts-Olympics-boxer-Imane-Khelif-honored-female-sports-award-Associated-Press.html

Only four, but it was enough for third place. The votes are anonymous.

It was a massive dereliction of duty from everyone involved - including the IBA with their disorganised circus of a press conference. But unfortunately I think there has to be a visible systems failure at a high level like this to provoke a corrective response.

It was aggravating reading all those articles and posts framing Khelif and Yu-ting's participation as a matter of kindness/inclusivity/trans rights versus Western beauty standards/bigotry/harassment.

Plus the goalposts kept being moved, whatever evidence came to light, so it was like arguing with a crazy person.

So what if she has an internal testes and a Y chromosome? Look at her female passport. So what if she's got male levels of T? Look at this photo of her as a girl. So what if there's test results saying she's male? The lab must be corrupt. So what if she's male? We don't care.

However I am sure the sunlight has peaked a huge number of people who were afraid to say so out loud on social media.

Gosh, you still read the Guardian?!

It is an interesting article.

But yes, the damage has been done already. Two female boxers could have had a bright future like these male boxers.

I asked the question on an earlier thread and never got an answer. Has any female boxer received the same kind of opportunities that Khelif has? Or is it really clear that this particular male boxer has been given an even more spectacular and glamorous future than any female gold medal boxer has? So the discrimination is really evermore evident?

Some people will just never admit those two boxers are men, even though all the experts and even the IOC have more or less admitted that they both have 46 XY 5ARD.

Yes I do wonder what evidence would convince his defenders, given his test paperwork is out there on a couple of sites. I suspect even if the chromosome evidence was 100% validated in a mainstream source, we would just be asked to accept that males with DSDs belong in women's sport ie the goalposts/boundaries would be shifted again (he's a unique kind of woman - the XY kind, with testes).

It’s not factually accurate. It uses female pronouns for both of them throughout and never actually confirms they are both male. Just says “some people have DSDs”. The uninformed reader would still presume a lot of fuss over speculative results.

Perhaps I brought too much background knowledge to the piece, but I felt it was skilfully worded.

Agreed, the reporter dutifully uses female pronouns for both boxers, and nowhere explicitly states that they are men; but he lays out the pieces of the puzzle in such a way that I think readers can draw the correct conclusion about "the chaotically administered sport of boxing when it comes to the issues of biological sex and gender" - the lack of legal challenge from Khelif, the financial motivation for an athlete from an impoverished background "registered female at birth"; the fact Khelif and Lin's passports were taken as sole proof of eligibility by the IOC.

Granted my expectations of the Guardian in this area are so low these days that I was braced for the usual irrelevant points (social media bullying, supposed misgendering of non-white women athletes, trans debates). This felt like a shift to a more mature discussion after the handwringing opinion pieces of just a few months ago. Maybe not bold or explicit enough yet, but a shift in the right direction.

Expectations are truly through the floor if 'readers could draw the correct conclusion' gets a newspaper praise...

It sounds more like you're discussing the fairness of the cryptic crossword.

I see what you are saying, Keenovay -

Trans sportspeople who are 100% biologically male and who operated as such until they decided to operate as 'sportswomen' are one thing, and referring to them as 'she' is making a political, pro-trans statement.

However, referring to two sportspeople who we are sure are 100% biologically make, because we've accepted evidence that others haven't, as 'she' may just be journalists referring to the-facts-as-they-are-currently-accepted-in-their-milieu.

Any crack in the assertion that Lin and Khélif are 100% female and are being bullied by nasty right-wing feminists is a crack in the right direction

Is Khélif getting more opportunities than women who win Olympic gold medals for boxing? Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington are, together with rising star sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, the most admired sportspeople in Ireland, and are very popular, but I don't see them getting many opportunities outside of sport.

That said, I wouldn't like to see them getting made over for Vogue, like Khélif, that's an 'opportunity' they're better off without I think..

I'd be happy for Khélif to have a successful career in modelling androgynous clothes - some of those Vogue shots were pretty impressive - if it keeps him out of women's boxing!

Oliver Brown has written another excellent article for the Telegraph

https://archive.ph/nIx9L

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2024/12/29/2024-showed-protecting-womens-sport-really-matters/

The scope is a little wider than just the boxing.

It's not just the two women who were robbed of gold, it's all the ones on the way to the final, who were bashed up, as well as the ones who may well have got silver and bronze.

The women who should have had bronze must find it bitterest of all; at least the bronze and silver winners had something to show for it, cheapened as it was.

Brown criticises the cricket authorities for allowing mixed competition at grass-roots level, whilst praising Seb Coe. But isn't Coe's idea to do the same thing in athletics, and only ring-fence elite sport?

Great article, I'm going to have to subscribe in support

Great article in the Telegraph I mean 😀