The Trans Agenda

[4 August 2024]

After what could be deemed a few relatively quiet months, give or take, the papers are back with all the pent up aggression of Tommy Robinson fan who’s found the coke stash. This week, trans people have taken a pummelling, mostly from people shouting IT’S NOT ABOUT TRANS PEOPLE.

If it wasn’t for the manufactured outrage around Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting, I would be reporting that there were just 10 articles this week. Alas, that is not what I am reporting. There have been 48 featuring Khelif/Yu-Ting/gender/trans people.

That’s the worst week since the week ending 21 May.

Although trans people do not feature in this story, the boxing attacks are absolutely being used as a way to attack trans people and, of course, those who do not fit the narrow definition of white cis femininity.

Sean Ingle was of course at it again in the Guardian, although he was quickly moved on to other stories. Remember, Ingle believes that cave men could throw spears better than cave women and that’s why trans women shouldn’t play in women’s sports.

Sonia Sodha also returned with her one column where as she tries to demonstrate that she knows more than all the doctors in the UK by advocating harm in the name of ‘do no harm’.

Ella Whelan in The Telegraph calls the ‘militant BMA’ an ‘enemy of the people’ while Suzanne Moore said of the ‘disgusting’ woman who was born a girl, raised as a girl and has existed in the world all her life as female, that she has the ‘characteristics of a biological male’. Her qualifications to make this claim? She read it on the internet.

In short, they were all back to their batshit worst. The Telegraph alone published 17 articles in the final three days of the week while Friday saw the most across all publications with 15. Bear in mind, last week saw 22 in total across four publications and seven days.

And it had all started out so quietly…

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THE PAPERS Monday 29th July – Sunday 4th August 2024

Monday Total: 0

The Guardian [0]
The Times [0]
Daily Mail [0]
Telegraph [0]

Tuesday Total: 8

The Guardian [2]
Tory ban on prescribing puberty blockers was lawful, high court rules The Guardian30 Jul 2024Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent PHOTOGRAPH: WIKTOR SZYMANOWICZ/GETTY Protesters against the puberty blocker ban take part in the Trans Pride march in London on Saturday A ban on prescribing puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria in England, Scotland and Wales was lawful, a high court judge ruled yesterday. The Conservative government issued an emergency order on 29 May temporarily outlawing the supply of puberty blockers pursuant to an overseas prescription, in the wake of the review by Dr Hilary Cass into gender medicine. The review criticised the lack of evidence surrounding the benefits and the risks associated with puberty blockers and the legislation was designed to ensure they could only be obtained as part of an authorised clinical trial. The advocacy group TransActual and a young person who cannot be named challenged the decision, claiming it lacked rigour and was motivated by the personal views of the health secretary at the time, Victoria Atkins. They argued that she had not identified the “serious danger to health” needed to justify emergency legislation and that she should have consulted before issuing the order. However, Mrs Justice Lang handed down a judgment saying Atkins had acted in accordance with the law. The judge wrote: “In my view, it was rational for the first defendant to decide that it was essential to adopt the emergency procedure to avoid serious danger to the health of children and young people who would otherwise be prescribed puberty blockers during that five- to sixmonth period. Under the emergency procedure, there is no requirement to hold a consultation procedure … “The Cass review’s findings about the very substantial risks and very narrow benefits associated with the use of puberty blockers, and the recommendation that in future the NHS prescribing of puberty blockers to children and young people should only take place in a clinical trial, and not routinely, amounted to powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions on the supply of puberty blockers on the grounds that they were potentially harmful.” Lang said that while the Cass review did not conclude that puberty blockers caused a serious danger to health, that was not the question it was asked to address. She said that the fact that the review’s findings had been acted upon by NHS England, the Royal College of GPs and the General Pharmaceutical Council “gave them considerable further weight”. The court heard that the temporary ban had had “a very real human cost” on more than 1,000 under-18s. Lang said: “I recognise that the claimants’ evidence does show that this cohort has had difficulties in obtaining access to UK-registered GPs and mental health services since the order was made. “In my view, this is essentially an issue about achieving a successful implementation of the new scheme, not the lawfulness of the order. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care should consider how implementation can be improved as soon as possible, and … before the next order is made.” The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, who is understood to be minded to make the ban permanent, said after the high court ruling: “Children’s healthcare must be evidence-led. Dr Cass’s review found insufficient evidence that puberty blockers are safe and effective for children with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. “We must therefore act cautiously and with care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people. “I am working to improve children’s gender identity services and to set up a clinical trial to establish the evidence on puberty blockers. “I want trans people in our country to feel safe, accepted, and able to live with freedom and dignity.” ‘The Cass review’s findings amounted to powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions’ Mrs Justice Lang High court judge Article Name:Tory ban on prescribing puberty blockers was lawful, high court rules Publication:The Guardian Author:Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent Start Page:18 End Page:18
Boxers who failed gender tests cleared to compete in Paris The Guardian30 Jul 2024Sean Ingle Paris ▲ Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting (left) and Imane Khelif of Algeria The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that two boxers disqualified from the world championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests will be allowed to fight in Paris. Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) start their Olympic campaigns this week: Khelif will meet the Italian Angela Carini in the 66kg category, and Lin is expected to face an unnamed opponent in the 57kg category on Friday. The IOC’s decision will be controversial. The situation has arisen because the world championships last year was run under the auspices of the International Boxing Association, whose president, Umar Kremlev, told the Russian news agency, Tass, that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events”. The IBA told the Guardian the decision “was intended to uphold the fairness and integrity of the competition”. However, the IBA has been banned from running the Olympic boxing tournament in Paris because of long-running questions surrounding governance issues and a series of judging scandals. That means the boxing in Paris is now being run under the auspices of the IOC’s Paris 2024 Boxing Unit. In a statement the IOC said: “The PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules (enforced at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the related qualifying tournaments) as a baseline to develop its regulations. Those rules descended from the Rio 2016 rules. The PBU endeavoured to restrict amendments to minimise the impact on athletes’ preparation and guaranteeing consistency between Olympic Games.” However the IOC’s own MyInfo website acknowledges that both boxers failed gender eligibility tests last year. In its internal system, which is provided to journalists in Paris, the IOC states that Khelif was “disqualified just hours before her gold medal showdown against Yang Liu at the 2023 world championships in New Delhi, India, after her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria”. The IOC also acknowledges Lin was “stripped of her bronze medal after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test. Both countries’ Olympic committees have been approached for comment. Article Name:Boxers who failed gender tests cleared to compete in Paris Publication:The Guardian Author:Sean Ingle Paris Start Page:43 End Page:43
The Times [1]
Ban on puberty blockers is ruled lawful Jonathan Ames - Legal Editor A ban on puberty blockers for those aged under 18 has been upheld by a judge, who said ministers had acted lawfully when they pushed the measure through parliament. A challenge to the temporary ban, which was rushed through the day before parliament was dissolved for the general election, was brought by campaigners who said it put young transgender people at risk. The campaign group TransActual had argued in the High Court that “hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide” among the group. At the Royal Courts of Justice in London Mrs Justice Lang allowed TransActual’s judicial review to proceed, but then dismissed it on all three of its grounds. She noted the campaign group had accused the health secretary of “not undertaking further investigations and consultation prior to making the order to ascertain the availability of medical support” for younger people claiming to be transgender. However, “further investigations and consultation at this stage would have been unlikely to have made any difference”, she said, as it would “not have been possible to ascertain the responses of GPs”. She said Victoria Atkins, the Tory health secretary at the time, had “made a lawful judgment …taking into account the advice about potential difficulties” and had introduced a statutory instrument to parliament against the backdrop of the Cass report on gender identity services for children and young people, which was released in April. The review, conducted by Hilary Cass, a retired consultant paediatrician and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, had recommended that “puberty blockers should only be accessed through a clinical research programme”, the judge said, adding: “However, the clinical research programme is not yet in place.” Campaigners said that they would seek leave to appeal against the judge’s ruling.
Daily Mail [2]
‘Male’ boxers allowed to fight women Daily Mail30 Jul 2024By Mike Keegan TWO boxers who were banned from the world championships for being ‘biologically male’ have been cleared to compete at the Olympics as women. A row has erupted over the decision to allow Imane Khelif, of Algeria, and Lin Yu-Ting, of Taiwan, to fight in Paris. International Olympic Committee (IOC) bosses say both meet eligibility criteria and will box over the coming days. The pair were disqualified from the women’s world championships in New Delhi last year after DNA tests were ordered amid questions over the biological sex of some of those taking part. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), said the tests had proven some of the athletes – including Khelif and YuTing – had ‘XY chromosomes’. He added that they ‘uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women’. But the IBA has been stripped of the right to run Olympic boxing competitions amid concerns over governance. Former Northern Ireland boxer Barry McGuigan wrote on X: ‘It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?’ American swimmer Nancy Hogshead added that ‘gender ideology will get women killed’. An IOC spokesman said: ‘All athletes participating in the boxing tournament comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations.’ Article Name:‘Male’ boxers allowed to fight women Publication:Daily Mail Author:By Mike Keegan Start Page:4 End Page:4
Rowling’s joy as High Court judge upholds ban on puberty blockers for trans children Daily Mail30 Jul 2024By Alex Ward Social Affairs Correspondent JK ROWLING praised yesterday a High Court ruling upholding a ban on puberty blockers for trans children. The Harry Potter author and women’s rights campaigner described the judgment as ‘moving back to treatment for vulnerable youth based on evidencebased medicine’. Her comments came hours after a High Court judge ruled an emergency ban on the prescription of puberty blockers was lawful. Mrs Justice Lang dismissed a judicial review brought by trans activists who challenged an order banning puberty blockers under rarely-used measures. The order was imposed in May by then Tory health secretary Victoria Atkins. Campaign group TransActual had claimed Ms Atkins acted unlawfully by failing to properly consult the public. Mrs Justice Lang ruled the health secretary had ‘reasonably considered that it was essential to make the order as soon as possible to protect children and young people from irresponsible prescribing of puberty blockers’. A consultation would have lasted five to six months and could have seen attempts to frustrate the system by beginning puberty blocker treatment before the ban came into force, the judge said. Ms Rowling wrote on X: ‘High court rules the UK ban on puberty blockers is lawful. We seem, at last, to be moving back to treatment for vulnerable youth based on evidence-based medicine, as opposed to the unevidenced claims of ideological lobby groups.’ Yesterday’s ruling was also applauded by current Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who reaffirmed the conclusions set out in the landmark Cass Review. Mr Streeting said: ‘Children’s healthcare must be evidence-led. Dr Cass’s review found there was insufficient evidence that puberty blockers are safe and effective for children with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. ‘We must therefore act cautiously and with care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people.’ Sir Keir Starmer also said ‘evireview, dence-led’ care must be the basis for children’s medicine. The PM’s spokesman said: ‘We are obviously pleased that the court has upheld the ban.’ It comes after the Cass Review into gender identity services concluded in April that children had been set on the path to irreversible change on scant medical evidence. Dr Hilary Cass, who led the said gender medicine had been ‘built on shaky foundations’. NHS clinics were banned from prescribing puberty blockers to children a month before the review’s publication. But the ban did not extend to private clinics, with Dr Cass’s review emphasising the loophole in the law. The emergency ban then sought to close the loophole that could be exploited by private clinics and European prescribers. Women’s rights groups hailed yesterday’s decision. Maya Forstater of Sex Matters, said: ‘By keeping his predecessor’s ban, Wes Streeting showed that the new government is determined to take an evidence-based approach to protecting the wellbeing of gender-distressed children.’ Chay Brown of TransActual said the group was disappointed, adding: ‘The judgment leans heavily on the discredited Cass review.’ ‘Evidence-based approach’ Article Name:Rowling’s joy as High Court judge upholds ban on puberty blockers for trans children Publication:Daily Mail Author:By Alex Ward Social Affairs Correspondent Start Page:22 End Page:22
Telegraph [3]
Puberty blockers ban is lawful, High Court rules The Daily Telegraph30 Jul 2024 A temporary ban on puberty blockers introduced by the Tory government using emergency legislation was lawful, the High Court has ruled. Justice Beverley Lang said a study found “very substantial risks and very narrow benefits” in administering the treatment. The ban restricts the NHS from providing the medication outside of clinical trials and prevents it from being prescribed by private suppliers. Transactual, a campaign group, challenged the decision of Victoria Atkins, then health secretary, to impose the “banning order” on puberty blockers. The Labour Government is considering making the restrictions permanent. Article Name:Puberty blockers ban is lawful, High Court rules Publication:The Daily Telegraph Start Page:2 End Page:2
Female boxers failed testosterone tests Controversy as pair allowed to fight in women’s category Mcguigan leads opposition to ‘shocking’ IOC decision The Daily Telegraph30 Jul 2024By Tom Morgan and Oliver Brown Two boxers who failed testosterone and gender eligibility tests last year have been cleared by the International Olympic Committee to fight in the women’s category in Paris. Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who competes on Thursday, was disqualified by the International Boxing Association over high testosterone levels before a gold-medal bout at the Women’s World Championships. Taiwan’s double world champion, featherweight Lin Yu-ting, scheduled to fight on behalf of Chinese Taipei on Friday, also lost a bronze medal in New Delhi over a “biochemical test for gender eligibility”. Olympic organising sources had previously said there were no known athletes who were “out” as either transgender or with differences of sexual development at these Games in women’s categories. But Khelif and Lin are now facing intense scrutiny by fairness for women’s sport campaigners after the IOC doubled down yesterday, effectively saying the pair had satisfied its own criteria to compete. The official Paris 2024 notes on both confirm they had previously been disqualified at other major events. Khelif ’s state she was “disqualified just hours before her gold medal showdown against Yang Liu at the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, India after her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria”. Lin’s state how “at the 2023 World Championships in Delhi, India, Lin was stripped of her bronze medal after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test”. As campaigners raised the pair’s previous expulsion, leading figures in boxing expressed dismay at them being cleared to compete in Paris. Barry Mcguigan, who held the World Boxing Association and lineal featherweight titles from 1985 to 1986, posted on social media: “It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?” The IOC, however, stood by its “eligibility and entry regulations” for boxing, which have no obvious references to gender eligibility. “All athletes participating in the Boxing Tournament of Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations,” a statement read. The governing bodies for Algeria and Chinese Taipei, were contacted by Telegraph Sport for comment. The inclusion of DSD as well as trans athletes at previous Olympics has been one of the most contentious issues the IOC has dealt with in the modern era. The IOC says it is up to individual sports to decide their rules. But there are significant concerns about the system being particularly unworkable in boxing. The IOC has effectively divorced itself from the IBA so decisions largely rest with national Olympic committees and federations. Article Name:Female boxers failed testosterone tests Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Tom Morgan and Oliver Brown Start Page:7 End Page:7

Wednesday Total: 0

The Guardian [0]
The Times [0]
Daily Mail [0]
Telegraph [0]

Thursday Total: 4

The Guardian [0]
The Times [2]
BMA wants right to give children puberty blockers Eleanor Hayward - Health Editor The Cass review’s recommendations have prompted protests by activists The British Medical Association has called for children to be given puberty blockers to help them to change gender and vowed to oppose the implementation of the Cass review’s recommendations. Leaders of the doctors’ union voted in favour of a motion calling for “prompt access” to gender-affirming medical interventions for under-18s, including hormones that block puberty. The NHS stopped using puberty blockers for children in March after a landmark review by the paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, which found a lack of evidence that they were safe or effective and called for a move away from a “medical pathway” for children in distress about their gender. The government then announced a ban on puberty blockers, which was upheld in the High Court this week. However, the BMA argues that this ban is “discriminatory” against transgender children. It has vowed to lobby ministers and NHS leaders to “oppose the implementation of the recommendations of the Cass review”. At a recent meeting of the union’s leaders, senior doctors voted in favour of a motion calling for children to be able to access treatment to help them change gender. The BMA announced yesterday that it would carry out an evaluation of the Cass review, raising concerns about “weaknesses in the methodologies used”. The union said that in the meantime the implementations of the review should be paused. Cass called for a fundamental shift away from medical interventions for children struggling with their gender, advocating a holistic model addressing other mental health problems. Leaders of the BMA have said they will publish a report “publicly critiquing” the review later this year. This will draw the union into conflict with Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who has backed the Cass review and the ban on puberty blockers. Professor Philip Banfield, the chairman of the BMA, said: “It is vitally important we take time and care to get this work right. This is a highly specialised area of healthcare for children and young adults with complex needs, and as doctors we want to be sure they get the most appropriate care.” He said the healthcare system “has, for too long, failed transgender patients”, adding: “It is time that we truly listen to this group of important, valued and unfortunately often victimised people and, together, build a system in which they are finally provided with the care they deserve.” Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at the human rights charity Sex Matters, said: “It is scarcely believable that the doctors’ trade union voted in favour of a motion making baseless claims about methodological weaknesses in the Cass review. This wide-ranging work took four years and is far and away the most authoritative synthesis of the evidence ... it is a sign of how far fringe ideas about gender identity have progressed in medicine that this motion was not dismissed out of hand. The secretary of state for health should stand firm.” A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The Cass review is a robust report backed by clinicians and firmly grounded in evidence. NHS England will be implementing Dr Cass’s recommendations so that children and young people get the safe, holistic care and support they need. “We do not support a delay to vital improvements from the NHS to gender services.”
IOC: boxing gender row must not descend into ‘witch-hunt’ Martyn Ziegler - Chief Sports Reporter The IOC has warned against “a witchhunt” developing over two women boxers who have been cleared to compete at Paris 2024 despite being banned from last year’s world championships because they were deemed to be biologically male. Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting are competing in the Olympic women’s boxing later this week, but their participation has been opposed by campaigners and voices in the sport, including the former men’s featherweight world champion Barry McGuigan. The boxers are both believed to be DSD athletes — people with differences of sexual development who have male chromosomes. Mark Adams, a spokesman for the IOC president, Thomas Bach, defended their right to take part after being asked what he would say to other female fighters who may feel the pair have an unfair advantage through higher testosterone levels. “These boxers are entirely eligible,” he said. “They are women, they competed in Tokyo and I think we all have a responsibility to try to dial this down and not turn it into some kind of witch-hunt.” At the 2023 world championships in Delhi, both were due to get medals until being disqualified by the International Boxing Association. The governing body is no longer recognised by the IOC, which is running the sport’s Olympic competition directly. Khelif, the No 5 seed in the 66-kg welterweight event, is due to fight Italy’s Angela Carini at the North Paris Arena. Lin, the top seed in the 57-kg featherweight class, will face Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova
Daily Mail [1]
Anger as BMA says it will fight puberty blocker ban Daily Mail1 Aug 2024By Shaun Wooller and Alex Ward DOCTORS’ union the British Medical Association last night sparked outrage by vowing to fight the introduction of the landmark Cass review into NHS gender identity services for children. The BMA revealed it will form its own group of members and trans patients to ‘publicly critique’ the inquiry’s findings. It is opposed to the planned ban on puberty blockers. Paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass made more than 30 recommendations to overhaul NHS gender services. Helen Joyce of campaign group Sex Matters, said: ‘It is scarcely believable that the doctors’ trade union voted in favour of a motion making baseless claims about methodological weaknesses in the Cass Review. ‘This work is far and away the most authoritative synthesis of the evidence on the treatment of gender-distressed children.’ The Department of Health said: ‘NHS England will be implementing Dr Cass’s recommendations.’ Article Name:Anger as BMA says it will fight puberty blocker ban Publication:Daily Mail Author:By Shaun Wooller and Alex Ward Start Page:27 End Page:27
Telegraph [1]
BMA calls for puberty drugs for trans teens despite ban The Daily Telegraph1 Aug 2024By Laura Donnelly and Daniel Martin THE British Medical Association is calling for puberty blockers to be prescribed to teens with gender dysphoria despite a ban on the medication. The doctors’ union has passed a motion criticising the landmark Cass review, which had called for an end to such prescribing for under-18s, warning that children should not be rushed into treatment they may regret. The review by the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in April had been widely welcomed by experts in the field, with Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, backing the continuation of a ban which had been introduced in the last days of the Tory Government. But the BMA has announced that its council has voted in favour of a motion which asked the union to “oppose the implementation of the recommendations made by the Cass review”. In a statement yesterday the union said it was “critical of proposals to ban the prescribing of puberty blockers to children and young people with gender dysphoria” calling for more research. The union said it would undertake its own evaluation of the Cass review, calling for a “pause” to implementation of its recommendations, until the BMA came to its own view. Sex Matters, the gender-critical ‘Dr Cass has been invaluable in supporting the NHS to create a safer service for young people’ group, said it was “scarcely believable” that the doctors’ trade union had backed a motion making “baseless claims” about methodological weaknesses in the Cass Review. It urged the Health Secretary to “stand firm” and continue with the recommendations. The union said the work would be completed towards the end of the year ahead of discussions with its council in January of next year. Until now, the BMA had refused to say whether the motion on Cass held at a private meeting had been passed. The union disclosed in a statement yesterday that the motion passed had called on the union to “publicly critique the Cass Review” and to “lobby and work with other relevant organisations and stakeholders to oppose the implementation of the recommendations made by the Cass Review.” An NHS spokesman said: “Dr Cass spent four years gathering evidence for the most comprehensive report of its kind, and her expertise and advice has been invaluable in supporting the NHS to create a fundamentally better and safer service for young people. “NHS England has full confidence in her report and we are committed to taking forward its recommendations. We will shortly be publishing our plan to implement the report’s recommendations and findings, which includes setting out scope for further research, so children and young people can receive the best-possible care.” Article Name:BMA calls for puberty drugs for trans teens despite ban Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Laura Donnelly and Daniel Martin Start Page:7 End Page:7

Friday Total: 15

The Guardian [2]
Day six, and as one hero departs, a legend gets her sixth Olympic gold The Guardian2 Aug 2024Daniel Boffey Roland Garros PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID LEVENE/THE GUARDIAN US gymnasts Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee celebrate their gold and bronze medals. It was Biles’s sixth Olympic gold Paris saw the best of Olympic sport as Andy Murray finally bowed out under the lights and US superstar gymnast Simone Biles made history – but a decision to allow a female boxer to fight a rival who failed a gender test left organisers under fire. Murray, Great Britain’s most successful tennis player of the open era, and a two-time Olympic champion, had hoped that his doughty double act with Dan Evans might delay his retirement by just a few more days, but the US team, Taylor Fritz, 26, and Tommy Paul, 27, proved too strong. After the dramatics of the previous two rounds, when Murray, 37, and Evans, 34, had saved a plethora of match points to keep the show on the road – and the floodlights on the result this time rarely seemed in doubt, with the fist-pumping British pair no longer able to rage against the dying of the light in the quarter-final. The match ended 6-2, 6-4, with Evans at the end pushing his visibly emotional friend back on to the court to take the roars of approval on what Murray has said will be his final professional outing. For a sporting superstar performing at the top of their game, it was to the Arena Bercy that the savvy Olympic spectator went last night, where Biles, 27, won her sixth Olympic gold medal and second of the Paris Games, in the women’s all-around final. In doing so she became the third woman in history to earn the sport’s most prestigious title more than once, but the stellar performance in Paris sealed her reputation as the greatest of all time. It was a welcome and joyful conclusion to the sixth day of the Games that had seen the International Olympic Committee criticised by the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls after the distraught Italian boxer Angela Carini to abandon her bout against Imane Khelif of Algeria after just 46 seconds on safety grounds. Khelif, 25, is one of two boxers permitted to fight at the Olympics despite being disqualified from the women’s world championships last year for failing testosterone and gender eligibility tests. After refusing to shake Khelif’s hand, Carini revealed in a post-fight interview that she had pulled out after being hit harder than she had ever been hit before. A first punch dislodged her chinstrap and a second smashed against her chin. She was left with a suspected broken nose and bloodied shorts. “I am heartbroken,” she said. “I went to the ring to honour my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head high.” Among the critics of the IOC’s decision to stage the bout was Reem Alsalem, the UN’s rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who said Carini “should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex”. Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, of Chinese Taipei, are said by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to have failed a sex test at last year’s world championships. The IOC said yesterday that both boxers had “complied” with its entry regulations and “have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category”. The IOC also accused the IBA of changing its gender rules in the middle of last year’s world championships. “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years,” it said. “Such an approach is contrary to good governance.” There were three more medals for Team GB yesterday. Helen Glover, a two-time gold medallist, missed out by the narrowest of margins on topping the podium again after an enthralling women’s four final against the Netherlands. The 38-year-old and her crew mates, Sam Redgrave, Esme Booth and Rebecca Shorten, had overhauled Romania at the 500-metre mark at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical stadium but had to settle for silver. New Zealand took the bronze. Glover acknowledged afterwards that her time might be up. “Half the team think I’ll carry on,” she said. “I don’t plan to carry on but I guess it’s been kind of ‘focus on crossing the finish line then we’ll see’.” Bronzes in the women’s double sculls and men’s four, after Wednesday’s gold medal for the women’s quadruple sculls, offered fresh evidence of a revitalisation of Britain’s rowing teams after the disappointments of Tokyo three years ago. Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Rebecca Wilde, who finished third behind New Zealand and Romania, spoke of an inner belief they would pick up a medal. Hodgkins-Byrne, 29, from Hereford, said: “I knew we could do it beforehand, but knowing you can do it is very different to actually being able to do it.” On winning a bronze in the men’s four with Freddie Davidson, David Ambler and Oli Wilkes, Matt Aldridge, 28, from Christchurch, Dorset, expressed renewed commitment to the sport, telling reporters he was looking ahead to the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles., USA. Meanwhile, with track and field starting today, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Olympic 1,500m champion, fired off a last-minute barb at his British rival, and world champion, Josh Kerr. Asked about the rivalry which has seen the men exchange insults in the press, Ingebrigtsen noted Kerr did not appear at the European Championships in June. “It is difficult to see someone as a rival when you are never competing,” he said. “Kerr will become known as the Brit who never competes. We’ll see if he runs tomorrow.” Article Name:Day six, and as one hero departs, a legend gets her sixth Olympic gold Publication:The Guardian Author:Daniel Boffey Roland Garros Start Page:10 End Page:10
Distraught Carini quits Olympic bout in 46 seconds The Guardian2 Aug 2024Sean Ingle North Paris Arena Carini (right) said ‘I’ve never felt a punch like this’ after Khelif ’s win* The Italian boxer Angela Carini broke down in tears after she abandoned her bout against the Algerian Imane Khelif after 46 seconds in a fight that sparked huge controversy at the Olympics. Khelif is one of two boxers permitted to fight at the Olympics despite being disqualified from the women’s world championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests. In highly charged scenes at the North Paris Arena, a first punch from Khelif dislodged Carini’s chinstrap and a second smashed against her chin and bloodied her shorts. After multiple punches Carini returned to her corner and raised her hand. She fell to her knees sobbing and refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the Algerian was declared the winner. Carini said she feared her nose was broken. “I am heartbroken,” Carini said. “I went to the ring to honour my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.” The 25-year-old, from Naples, added: “I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high. “After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want. I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it.” Khelif stopped briefly to speak to the BBC: “I am here for gold,” the Algerian said. “I will fight anybody, I will fight them all.” Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, expressed her concern. “Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex,” she tweeted. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, weighed in, saying: “I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions … from my point of view it was not an even contest.” The International Olympic Committee (IOC) came under fire for permitting Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan to compete in the women’s category. Lin is due to face Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in a featherweight bout in Paris today. Last year both fighters were disqualified from the world championships, with the International Boxing Association (IBA) president, Umar Kremlev, saying that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. XY is the combination of chromosomes in males, while XX is the combination in females. But last night the IOC said both boxers had “complied” with its entry regulations and “have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category”. “As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport,” it added. The IOC also accused the IBA of changing its gender rules in the middle of the 2023 world championships. “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in toplevel competition for many years,” it said. “Such an approach is contrary to good governance.” The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) said on Wednesday it “strongly condemns the unethical targeting and maligning” of Khelif “from certain foreign media outlets”, adding: “Such attacks on her personality and dignity are deeply unfair, especially as she prepares for the pinnacle of her career at the Olympics. The COA has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion.” Luca Anna Hamori, a Hungarian boxer who is due to face Khelif in the next round, said she was prepared. “I will go to the ring and I will get my win. I trust my coaches and I trust myself.” ‘The gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport’ IOC statement On Imane Khelif’s eligibility Article Name:Distraught Carini quits Olympic bout in 46 seconds Publication:The Guardian Author:Sean Ingle North Paris Arena Start Page:38 End Page:38
The Times [2]
Gloves are off in boxing gender row Female Olympian quits bout with rival who failed testosterone test, report David Brown and Matt Lawton Imane Khelif of Algeria, in red, left Angela Carini of Italy, who trains with her brother and has always fought against male opponents, sobbing in the ring. Next image › The Olympic Games organisers have been criticised for allowing an Algerian boxer who failed a gender test last year to batter her female opponent into submission in 46 seconds yesterday. Imane Khelif, 25, was declared the winner after the Italian fighter Angela Carini, also 25, withdrew after a few punches, saying it was to “save my life”. A human rights group said the rules on gender eligibility for the women’s boxing tournament at Paris had created a “dangerous and absurd spectacle”. The International Olympic Committee’s [IOC] profile of Khelif records that she was disqualified hours before her gold medal match at last year’s world championships “after her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria”. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, said: “Athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions. And not because you want to discriminate, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms. It was not an even contest.” She posted a photo of herself consoling Carini, a police officer. “I know that one day you will get what you deserve through strength and sweat. In a competition that is finally equal,” Meloni wrote. Carini fell to her knees and sobbed after the 66kg bout was abandoned then shrugged off Khelif’s attempts to shake her hand. She had a nose injury and blood on her trunks. “I am heartbroken because I am a fighter,” Carini said. “I have always stepped into the ring with honour ... And this time I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t fight any more. In that moment, I had to safeguard my life. I train with my brother. I’ve always fought against men, but I felt too much pain today. It hurt so much. I am heartbroken. I have never felt a punch like this. After the second blow, I felt extreme pain ... I didn’t lose, I just surrendered with maturity.” Khelif said: “I hope to achieve a second victory to secure a medal, and then think about the gold medal. I tell the Algerian people that I am working to provide the best I can in order to make them happy.” JK Rowling, the author and campaigner, addressed a message to Kirsty Burrows, head of the International Olympic Committee’s safe sport unit: “A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her. You’re a disgrace, your ‘safeguarding’ is a joke and #Paris24 will be for ever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.” Khelif was one of two boxers cleared to compete in Paris despite having been disqualified from last year’s World Championships, which is run by the International Boxing Association. The other is Lin Yu Ting, 28, of Taiwan. Umar Kremlev, president of the association, said DNA tests showed the boxers had “XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. It issued a statement on Wednesday in which it claimed that neither boxer had a “testosterone examination” last year but they were “subject to a separate and recognised test” for their disqualification. Khelif dropped an appeal. The Algerian Olympic Committee claimed the disqualification was a conspiracy to stop them winning gold, citing “medical reasons” for high testosterone levels. The International Olympic Committee no longer recognises the IBA because of its links with Russia, so is running the boxing in Paris itself. It operates different eligibility criteria for women. A spokesman said Khelif and Lin were “women according to their passports”. Some experts suggest the two have “differences of sexual development”, a group of rare conditions that can lead to increased testosterone and muscle mass as well as a skeletal advantage.
Boxer who ended fight early not the only victim IOC’s insane desire for inclusivity endangered Italian but also exposes her opponent to untold harm, writes Owen Slot Carini was emotional Next image › The Olympic Games has failed heinously in its duty of care to its athletes. The scandal that has unfolded in the boxing ring has reaped a damage upon two of its competitors that cannot be measured. There were two boxers who suffered in the ring at the Paris North Arena. One was Italy’s Angela Carini, who was placed in extreme danger. The other was Algeria’s Imane Khelif, whose biological sex is now the subject for open discussion on the biggest stage in the sporting world. One has been in genuine physical danger. The other has been laid open to a kind of global humiliation. It is insane that this has been allowed to happen. It is not as though this boxing scandal hadn’t been flagged up to the IOC, yet the governing body ignored all the red flags and allowed these two competitors to share a ring. The IOC has failed utterly in its responsibility to look after them. The IOC “seeks to promote a safe and welcoming environment for everyone involved in elite-level competition”. That is a quote from a governance document it released 2½ years ago. It has not stood by these intentions. The IOC also seeks to provide fair competition. Fair competition becomes obviously flawed with doping scandals that are, mostly, out of its control. However, in this case, which the IOC does control, it appears that it has actually promoted the unfairness of the contest. It has seen this coming and failed to take appropriate action. That it involves a boxing contest, in which the athletes’ physical safety is paramount, is why it is particularly appalling. Khelif had already failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships in Delhi last year. Another boxer, Lin Yu-ting, of Chinese Taipei, who is due to fight today, also failed a gender eligibility test. Both were disqualified from those World Championships. The IOC has banned the IBA, the boxing authority that ran that event, because it has lost its credibility as a governing body. However, it is inexcusable that the IOC would then overlook the findings of these gender eligibility tests. This terrible oversight led to the farce in the ring yesterday for two athletes whose competitive lives have been dedicated to performing at the Paris Games. Carini is now out of a competition in which it seems she never had a chance. Khelif is being held up as the villain of the piece, but is simultaneously having her gender being picked over by the world’s media. How can the IOC have been so unutterably foolish? The answer, it seems, lies in its obsession with inclusivity, which is, of course, a right and admirable concept. However, it had attempted to be inclusive towards a number of Russian athletes, for instance, who have been invited here to compete as neutrals, but it soon transpired that two thirds of those Russians had violated the eligibility rules by expressing support for the invasion of Ukraine or by having links to the military. In other words, good intentions, poor process, negative outcome. That is exactly what we have seen here with the boxing, except that the stakes are so much higher. In retrospect we could argue that Khelif should have withdrawn from the Olympics after her disqualification from Delhi. However, huge decisions such as these should not be left to the young, ambitious athletes, especially in this situation when Khelif will never have wanted to accept the judgment handed down in Delhi. It is the governing body — in this case the IOC — that should be doing exactly that: governing. Sometimes hard decisions are hard when you are promoting inclusivity. This one should have been easy. The boxing scandal will now dominate the next few days of these Olympics, and so it should unless the IOC takes immediate action. In a statement released yesterday evening the governing body said it had no intention of taking any quick action. However, the immediate priority has to be to remove Khelif and Yu ting from the Olympic competition. That is harsh on the pair of them but it is nevertheless the only course of action. The outcome of the 46 seconds that Khelif required to launch two punches into Carina’s face made that abundantly clear. This course of action would also make a statement about the fairness of the competition that the IOC likes to promote. If you believe in fair competition — fair sport for biological females in this case — then you have to put hard decisions before lofty ideals. In the process it would also be showing a greater duty of care to athletes, like Khelif, whose gender eligibility has been found to stand against them. I recall being there in person when the Caster Semenya situation became public at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009. On the one hand, there were the best female middle-distance runners in the world being denied the right to fair competition because it would be later confirmed that they had been competing against a DSD (difference in sex development) athlete. On the other, you had Semenya herself, a teenager whose gender was suddenly global headline news. Truly heartbreaking. Everyone loses here. Here it is happening again. The difference on this occasion, of course, is that you are throwing in physical danger too. It is madness that the IOC has allowed this problem to arise. It needs to act immediately to prevent the damage to sport, the Games and its competitors from escalating any further.
Daily Mail [4]
Watching this gruesome mismatch between a woman and a ‘biological male’ left me fearing wokery will get someone killed ‘Sorry, we’re not allowed to have an opinion...’
DAVID JONES AT THE RINGSIDE JK fury over boxing match that forced woman to quit against ‘male’ opponent af ter just 46 seconds Daily Mail2 Aug 2024From Sam Greenhill and Claire Duffin in Paris A FEMALE boxer once disqualified for being ‘biologically male’ yesterday forced out an Italian opponent in one of the most controversial Olympic moments ever. A global backlash, led by Italy’s prime minister and Harry Potter author JK Rowling, ensued after Angela Carini quit to ‘save my life’ just 46 seconds into her bout against Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, claiming she had been hit so hard that she ‘couldn’t breathe’. Giorgia Meloni protested after her nation’s Olympic hopeful was left sobbing on her knees in the ring following the contentious match against a rival previously banned for having an ‘unfair advantage’. Ms Meloni added: ‘I was emotional yesterday when she wrote “I will fight” because the dedication, the head, the character, surely also play a role in these things. But then it also matters to be able to compete on equal grounds and, from my point of view, it was not an even contest.’ The Italian premier was joined by Ms Rowling, former British PM Liz Truss and Sir Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, as well as female sports stars, in condemning the scenes. The fight between the two 25year-olds ended after Carini was rocked by two punches and said later the savage force of the blows had made it ‘impossible to continue’. Carini, a police officer, fell to her knees and burst into tears as she conceded the match, shouting: ‘This is unjust.’ Her prime minister, who was visiting the Olympic Village yesterday, said: ‘This, from my point of view, was not a competition on equal terms. It is a fact that with the levels of testosterone present in the blood of the Algerian athlete the race at the start does not seem fair.’ Women’s rights campaigner Ms Rowling tweeted a video of the fight and wrote: ‘Watch this then explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn’t sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organisers who allowed this to happen, this is men revelling in their power over women.’ Carini was pictured in floods of tears after the match and said she was unable to continue for her health, adding: ‘I have never felt a punch like this.’ Ms Murray wrote on X: ‘This should never have been allowed to happen.’ James Guy, a five-times Olympic medallist member of the British swimming team tweeted: ‘Not fair!’, while former GB swimmer Sharron Davies said: ‘This is a biological male fighting a female & absolutely everyone can see it.’ Former tennis star Martina Navratilova wrote it was ‘a travesty and makes a mockery of all Olympic sports’. Speaking out after her loss, Carini explained: ‘It could be the match of my life but, in that moment, I had to safeguard my life, too.’ After the match was stopped, the referee raised Khelif’s hand in the air. But a visibly furious Carini yanked her own hand away from the fight official and walked off. Carini’s coach Emanuele Renzini reportedly said after the fight: ‘I don’t know if her nose is broken. But many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: “Don’t go please: It’s a man, it’s dangerous for you”.’ The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, backed Carini saying she ‘rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex.’ And Labour MP and feminist campaigner Rosie Duffield told the Mail: ‘For days, we have been highlighting the potential danger of this specific event to the IOC [International Olympic Committee] who chose to go ahead and ignore us.’ Former Prime Minister Liz Truss also said: ‘When will this madness stop?’ However, Labour’s two equalities ministers were, despite requests for comment, both silent. As the furore was raging, one of them, Anneliese Dodds did find time to tweet about ‘cycling to work day’. But Khelif was backed by her country’s Olympic committee which ‘strongly condemns the unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete’. The IOC said all boxers in Paris ‘comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations’. Khelif was allowed to fight at the Olympics despite being disqualified from the women’s world championships last year for failing testosterone and gender eligibility tests. These were organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), a Russia-led body which has since been stripped of its status. But ex-world champion Amy Broadhurst tweeted: ‘Personally I don’t think she has done anything to “cheat”. I thinks it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control.’ The IOC blamed the IBA’s ‘arbirary’ decision for the row, with a spokesman adding: ‘This is not a transgender issue. I should make this absolutely clear.’ ‘Hit so hard I couldn’t breathe’ Article Name:DAVID JONES AT THE RINGSIDE JK fury over boxing match that forced woman to quit against ‘male’ opponent af ter just 46 seconds Publication:Daily Mail Author:From Sam Greenhill and Claire Duffin in Paris Start Page:13 End Page:13
Watching this gruesome mismatch between a woman and a ‘biological male’ left me fearing wokery will get someone killed ‘Sorry, we’re not allowed to have an opinion...’ Daily Mail2 Aug 2024by DAVID JONES Winning roar: Imane Khelif celebrates victory Bounding into the ring, to a rousing chorus of ‘Volare’ from the large italian contingent in the 5,000 crowd, Angela Carini looked every inch a woman. Her luxuriant raven hair, which she wears loose when not on duty as a police officer in naples, was wrapped in a blue bandana. Her tight chest-guard and baggy blue shorts couldn’t conceal her feminine curves. As her corner assistant fastened on the gloves, she might have been thinking of her father, who inspired her take up boxing but died a few days after she made her olympic debut at the Tokyo games three years ago. After 107 bouts, of which she has won 84, 25-year-old Carini is nobody’s pushover. not for nothing is she nicknamed ‘Tiger’. Heaven knows what dark thoughts ran through her mind, though, when she gazed at the red-kitted person in the corner diagonally opposite her, who was clearly pumped up and making ready. i use the word ‘person’ advisedly. For although the international olympic Committee (ioC) in their dubious wisdom, are satisfied that imane Khelif is female, her coat-hanger shoulders, bulging biceps and lantern jaw (augmented by a haircut resembling that of late popstar Prince) screamed masculinity. Carini would surely have known all about Khelif’s genetic make-up, which meant she was likely to have 75 per cent more musclemass in her upper body and 90 per cent more strength. The italian may also have been aware of scientific research into the sexual dimorphism (or physical differences) between men and women, which proves that the average male can punch two and a half times harder than a female. And when studying Khelif’s boxing tactics, Carini must have watched the now-viral video showing the 5ft 9in, 10st 5lb Algerian brutalising a smaller and weaker Mexican woman into submission in a relentless onslaught two years ago. internet comments have likened it to a case of domestic violence. Yesterday’s hapless victim barely had time to soak up the electric atmosphere in the north Paris Arena before the first sledgehammer blow hit home. A right-hander that might have been delivered by Mike Tyson, Khelif’s punch struck Carini’s head so forcefully that it dislodged her blue leather head guard — equipment that supposedly protects olympic boxers and makes their sport safe. From my seat overlooking the ring, i winced and took in a sharp breath as i saw this opening shot find its target. Though Carini asked the referee for a timeout so that the guard could be readjusted, and seemed ready to continue, it was obvious even then that she wouldn’t last much longer. A young woman ioC official was sitting next to me, so i asked her what she thought of the gruesome mismatch in size and strength. ‘Sorry, we aren’t allowed to have an opinion,’ she replied, poker-faced. Moments later, words were redundant. Another sickening punch, even more powerful than the first, clubbed Carini flush on the nose, rocking her head back violently, as if she were a rag doll. After just 46 seconds, mercifully, it was over. Wiping away the blood, which mingled with her tears, Carini sank to her knees in the middle of ring, showing her anguish by hammering her fists into the canvas. ‘it’s not fair,’ she mouthed to her corner, a sentiment doubtless shared by many fans in the packed arena. At first, however, confusion reigned. Had she thrown in the towel because she was too badly hurt to continue? did she surrender for fear of further punishment? or was she staging a protest, perhaps pre-planned, against her opponent’s disputed gender? The official result, as delivered by the five judges, was that she had ‘abandoned’ the fight. Yet as Khelif raised a triumphal arm and Carini slipped away, refusing to accept the Algerian’s offer of a conciliatory handshake — an amateur boxing ritual that very seldom goes unobserved — it was evident that something momentous had happened here. We had witnessed one of the most egregious — and dangerous — contests since the olympics were staged in the amphitheatres of ancient greece and Rome and combatants sometimes fought to the death. it was an act of folly that not only discredited the ioC — who ought to have foreseen how it could end — but undermined the very spirit of the olympic movement. By my reckoning, the organisers of Paris 2024 should take some blame, too. For as italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said before yesterday’s debacle, this whole garish spectacle reeked of ‘political correctness’ and ‘woke ideology’. diversity and inclusion have been the twin mantras of these games from the outset. The obsession with these holy grail virtues has underpinned every facet, right down to the ludicrous insistence on ensuring there are exactly the same number of males and females among the 11,400 athletes (though after yesterday, we are entitled to wonder if there is one fewer woman and one more man). So, we must assume that the quest for ‘inclusion’ was behind the ioC’s decision to sanction Khelif’s entry, and also that of Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting, even though both were disqualified from last year’s world women’s boxing championships after tests showed their excessive testosterone levels. Mr Salvini describes the ruling to allow Khelif as ‘a slap in the face for the ethics of the sport and to the credibility of the olympics’ — comments which have made him the subject of threats and insults. From the outpouring of anger that this controversy has stirred on the internet, however, it is evident that huge numbers of sensible people share his views, among them the only people who know how it feels to be hit in the face by a physically superior human being: the boxers themselves. Critics of the ioC decision range from former world featherweight champion Barry Mcguigan to evolutionary biologist Richard dawkins, who decried Khelif and Yu-Ting as ‘two men masquerading as women’. Condemnation also comes from author JK Rowling, who yesterday posted an image of Khelif attempting to comfort the emotionally and physically broken Carini, and commented: ‘Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better?’ in fairness, Khelif has an uplifting back story. She became interested in boxing after watching the Rio 2016 olympic games and paid the bus fare from her small village to the nearest boxing gym by selling bits of scrap metal for recycling. Her mother also helped her by selling couscous. This year she was a named a uniCEF ambassador for Algeria. Khelif, who ironically represents the Civil Safety Boxing Club in her hometown of Tiaret and lists her hobby as ‘cooking’, only took up boxing in 2018. Muhammad Ali is her hero. She lost five of her early fights, but progressed so rapidly that, last March, she reached the final of the world championships in india. But she was disqualified before the gold medal bout with a Chinese boxer. Yu-Ting, who is due to fight today was stripped of the bronze medal she had secured. After she was disqualified last year, Khelif claimed to have been the victim of a high-level ‘conspiracy’ orchestrated inside and outside her country but didn’t say who she believed was behind it. The international Boxing Federation, who then controlled the sport, said a dnA test showed them both to have X and Y chromo This is an act of folly that discredits the IOC somes, which made them biological men. Women typically have XX chromosomes. The boxer’s testosterone levels were said to be equivalent to those found in men. The IBA’s president Umar Kremlev claimed they had been ‘trying to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women’. It must be pointed out that Kremlev, a Russian sports tsar with close ties to Vladimir Putin, produced no evidence to support his allegation of deliberate deception. And also that the IBA, funded solely by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, lost control of Olympic boxing after concerns were raised over its governance, finance and ethics. Boxing at the Paris Games thus comes under the auspices of the IOC’s new boxing unit. Before Khelif fought yesterday, I put a series of questions to this unit, asking precisely how it had established her female gender and that of Yu-Ting. An IOC spokesman responded that all Olympic athletes ‘comply with the competition’s entry, as well as all applicable medical regulations,’ but did not explain how that had been proved. We have, of course, been here before, notably with the South African Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya. She was belatedly required to take a testosterone suppressant before competing after being found to have been born with a congenital intersex condition that raises her levels. Semenya challenged the decision and though she has retired from athletics her protracted case is still going through the courts. Yet the worst that could happen to Semenya’s rivals was that they would be left trailing in her turbo-charged wake. Had Angela Carini hung around much longer yesterday, she might have been killed. After despatching her, a gleeful Khelif brushed away press questions about the legitimacy of her entry and whooped: ‘I’m here to win gold! I will fight anybody!’ Meanwhile, with her hands still bandaged in the bloodied wraps boxers wear under their gloves, Carini wept again as she strove to explain why she had quit. After preparing for the Olympics for four years, only to succumb to just two punches, she could have been forgiven for ascribing her defeat to the inequality of the contest. Admirably, she chose not to do so. Asked whether she felt she had been beaten by a man, she replied: ‘It’s not up to me to judge. It’s not up to me to say if it’s fair or not fair. I just did my job. I managed to leave with my head held high.’ Pressed on the matter, she added that she ‘hadn’t been interested in the person in front of me’. She had simply come to fight and honour her father’s memory, but Khelif’s blow had ‘hurt too much’. ‘After the second punch I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough because I couldn’t finish the fight. It was better to put an end to it,’ she said. ‘I am in pieces because I am a fighter. They taught me to be a warrior. I’ve always tried to behave with honour... to represent my country with loyalty. This time I couldn’t manage to because I couldn’t fight any more.’ Her coach, Emanuelle Renzini, revealed he had tried to coax her into completing the first of the three, three-minute rounds, at least, but she had refused. From where I had been sitting, it looked a very wise decision. Next in the firing line is Anna Luca Hamori, a 23-year-old Hungarian with flowing blonde hair who recently posted beside a swimming pool in a pink bikini. After what I saw yesterday, I am praying for her. Article Name:Watching this gruesome mismatch between a woman and a ‘biological male’ left me fearing wokery will get someone killed Publication:Daily Mail Author:by DAVID JONES Start Page:14 End Page:14
An unfair fight Daily Mail2 Aug 2024 IN a civilised world, allowing a man to beat up a woman is a crime against human decency – and the law. At the Olympic Games, it seems, it’s jolly good sport. In a grotesque spectacle yesterday, a female Italian boxer retired 46 seconds into her bout, having been left stunned and in tears by a ferocious punch to the face from her opponent, Imane Khelif. She said later she had never been hit so hard. This is hardly surprising, as Khelif, while identifying as a woman, is effectively a biological male. The Algerian was banned from the 2023 world championships by the International Boxing Association after showing male levels of testosterone and a DNA test is said to have shown the presence of both X and Y chromosomes. Yet the IOC ignored the ruling and put Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting (also previously banned after failing a gender test) into the ring with biological women. Men punch on average roughly twice as hard as women and their bodies are better able to absorb heavy blows. Pitting one against the other is both immoral and potentially lethal. The Olympics are meant to be the epitome of fair and healthy competition. This pathetic capitulation to the trans lobby shows how tarnished that ideal has become. Article Name:An unfair fight Publication:Daily Mail Start Page:16 End Page:16
Boxing farce is one of the darkest moments in Olympic history. How COULD they let it happen? Daily Mail2 Aug 2024MIKE KEEGAN NICK EDWARDS Unjust: Carini drops to her knees after pulling out of the fight against Khelif FORTY-SIX seconds was long enough for Angela Carini. Long enough for two righthands from Imane Khelif, the boxer her friends and family had told her all week to avoid because she ‘is a man’, to find their mark. Long enough for those punches to detach a chin strap, rock her backwards and leave her blue shorts blood-spattered. Long enough for her to tell her coach she was done, to sink to her knees in the middle of the ring in apparent protest, smash the canvas in despair and burst into floods of tears that continued after she had spoken to reporters and made her way, disconsolately, to the dressing room. Hopefully, it will also be long enough for Olympics bosses to take a long serious look at a mess largely of their own making. ‘It hurt so much,’ a distraught Carini, clutching her nose, said afterwards. ‘After the second one I couldn’t breathe any more. I went to my coach and said “enough” because it takes maturity and courage to stop. I didn’t feel like fighting any more… I have never felt a punch like this.’ Never in the history of Olympic female boxing had a welterweight (66kg) clash between an Algerian and an Italian garnered so much interest. The press box at the North Paris Arena, down the road from Charles de Gaulle Airport, was packed with scribes from across the world, craning to get a view. It was a surreal scene. In the build-up, speakers belted out high-octane pop songs to an appreciative crowd, most of whom had come to watch others, with this one of 28 fights on the card. On the way in from the nearby station, Eye of the Tiger, by the aptly-named Survivor, had been played over a megaphone from a volunteer’s phone. Khelif, in red and with short black hair, entered first to no audible boos from the temporary stands. Two small pockets of Algerians waved their green and white flags but the cheers were considerably louder when Carini, daughter of a police officer, walked to the blue corner amid the upbeat strains of Volare, which someone had seen fit to play. The Neapolitan had won silvers at World and European events. She was no mug. She kissed a glove, looked to the roof and made a quick sign of the cross before heading into battle. But this was no battle. This was a mismatch from the off. Khelif commanded the centre of the ring and went to work. After feigning left, the Algerian clipped Carini on the chin with a right. After a pause, Carini waved to her corner to fix her headguard and exchanged words with her coach. After the strap was fixed she tried a punch of her own, which was swatted away by her rangy opponent who struck again with another right to the chin which rocked her backwards. Again, Carini turned to her corner ‘Non e gusto,’ she said — ‘it’s not fair’ — and that is the central allegation at the heart of the matter. As Carini sank to her knees in protest, Olympic broadcasters sharply cut to a shot of the Eiffel Tower. This may be a landmark moment of its own. Khelif had different emotions. ‘I’m here for the gold — I will fight anybody,’ the victorious Algerian said. ‘I will fight them all.’ Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who is also competing in Paris, were disqualified from last year’s women’s world championships, with International Amateur Boxing (IBA) president Umar Kremlev — who ran that competition — saying that further DNA tests had ‘proved they had XY chromosomes’. In short, that they had been deemed ‘biologically male’. But following a dispute with the IOC, the IBA were stripped of their ability to run Olympic competitions and here they both are. IOC rules are deemed more relaxed. Indeed, comms chief Mark Adams had previously warned reporters away from starting a ‘witch hunt’ with the seemingly basic explanation that both boxers had ‘female’ on their passports and thus should be allowed to fight in that category. Such words may not find approval among Carini’s devastated camp, despite how gracious they were in questionable defeat. ‘I am not one to judge,’ she said. ‘I got into the ring and did my duty as a boxer and tried to fight irrespective of any controversy or anything else. I wanted to win.’ Her coach added: ‘Many people in Italy tried to call and tell her, “Don’t go please: it’s a man, it’s dangerous for you”.’ On the eve of the farce, the IBA released a statement clarifying why Khelif and Lin had been disqualified from the tournament, held in New Delhi. It cited a ‘meticulous’ review which ‘was necessary to uphold the fairness and integrity of the competition’. The missive added that no testosterone examinations were held, rather ‘a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential’. That examination ‘conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors’. The IBA said that the ban was also based on tests conducted at the World Boxing Championships in 2022 and said — significantly — that Khelif withdrew an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, rendering the decision legally binding. In a dig at the IOC, they ‘expressed concern over inconsistent eligibility criteria by other organisations, including those overseeing the Olympics’. ‘The IOC’s differing regulations on these matters raise serious questions about competitive fairness and athletes’ safety,’ they added. There was little here to suggest those words were not accurate. Others had given their own views before the fight. Australia’s boxing captain Caitlin Parker voiced fears that one of her teammates is fighting in the same 66kg weight category as Khelif. ‘I don’t agree with them being allowed to compete in sport, especially combat sports,’ Parker said. ‘It can be incredibly dangerous.’ The Italian sports minister Andrea Abodi also weighed in. ‘In the event that represents the highest values of sport, the safety of female and male athletes must be guaranteed, as well as respect for fair competition. That is not how it will be for Angela Carini.’ He was not wrong and the country’s Prime Minister was quick to respond to the shambles. ‘The levels of testosterone present in the Algerian athlete, the contest was not a contest, it was not equal,’ said Giorgia Meloni. Perhaps more damaging for the IOC will be the post-farce comments from United Nations official Reem Alsalem. The body’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls expressed her concern online, tweeting that Carini had ‘rightly followed her instincts and prioritized her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex’. Khelif walked through the mixed zone without answering questions from the press. There should also be a level of sympathy here. There are others who must offer explanations, and potentially take actions, after one of the darkest episodes in Olympic history. Article Name:Boxing farce is one of the darkest moments in Olympic history. How COULD they let it happen? Publication:Daily Mail Author:MIKE KEEGAN Start Page:77 End Page:77
Telegraph [7]
The militant BMA is becoming an enemy of the people Calling on the NHS to lift the ban on puberty blockers will embolden trans extremists and put children at risk The Daily Telegraph2 Aug 2024Ella Whelan For most people, the Cass Review into gender-identity services in England came as a relief. Finally, an evidence-led, expert group of people led by a renowned paediatrician had confirmed what we all were thinking, using research instead of Twitter spats: puberty blockers are not safe to give to kids. One of the few things the Conservative Party did right in its ill-fated last stretch in government was to ban puberty blockers, instituted by the then health secretary Victoria Atkins. The current Government seems to agree. Following a High Court challenge to the ban, which was upheld, Health Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the ruling, arguing that being “evidence-led” was the key factor in any approach to children’s healthcare. And yet, in its infinite wisdom, the British Medical Association (BMA) has decided that the ban on puberty blockers should be lifted. Why? Because it didn’t like the Cass Review. In a statement published on Wednesday, the doctors’ union argued that there were “weaknesses in the methodologies used in the Review and problems arising from the implementation of some of the recommendations”. This is a familiar argument levelled at Dr Hilary Cass and her team that data has essentially been “cherrypicked”. But this misses the key argument for the Cass Review’s criticism of medicalised pathways for gender dysphoric children – that there simply isn’t enough good evidence to justify such radical medical intervention. If doctors aren’t nervous about doling out medicine that hasn’t been properly tried and tested, what chance do the rest of us have? Isn’t a central tenet of the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm? If the BMA was simply arguing that more research should be carried out into puberty blockers, many of us would agree. With such an exponential rise in the number of children – particularly girls – requesting medical intervention on account of feeling that they are “in the wrong body”, wellresearched and trustworthy medical knowledge is vital to make sure no mistakes have been made. But that isn’t what the BMA is arguing. In fact, it wants to continue as normal, allowing young people to pop pills to stop their bodies progressing along normal, healthy pathways to adulthood. It argues that trans children have been silenced by this ban. “It is time that we truly listen to this group of important, valued, and unfortunately often victimised people,” the BMA’S chair of Council Prof Philip Banfield says. This statement directly contradicts the opinions of many whistleblowers from the Tavistock and other clinics, who argued that doctors were being bullied into “affirming” the demands of children, rather than exerting their authority to keep them safe. The BMA press release also links to a report published by the Integrity Project at Yale. This critique of the Cass Review reads like a political tract, despite pointing the finger at Cass for the exact same crime. “Our concerns about the Cass Review reflect the politicised context for transgender healthcare, especially for youth,” it says, “if politics continue to interfere with transgender healthcare, clinical services and research in this field may not recover.” This is a classic copy-andpaste response from trans activists – question our approach and you endanger us. Such hostility to scrutiny is worrying in the world of politics, and downright dangerous in the field of medicine. Healthcare should not be politicised – and yet, in many cases, it is. From abortion care to access to contraception, trans people are hardly the first to have debates raised about their right to pills. The BMA is currently involved in industrial action, having just announced a “work-torule” for GPS protesting a new contract with measly pay increases. This is what most people consider the stuff of a doctors’ union – regardless of whether they agree with its recent actions – not trying to curry favour with trans activists by playing politics. The twisted logic of extreme trans ideology – that asserts the fiction that sex isn’t real and all your problems can be solved by mutilating your body – has been adopted by too many working in healthcare. The ban on puberty blockers was informed by science and experts. But there is a broader political battle to be won by those of us not in white coats – one for truth, and the protection of our children. Follow Ella Whelan on Twitter/x @Ella_m_whelan read More at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion Article Name:The militant BMA is becoming an enemy of the people Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:Ella Whelan Start Page:14 End Page:14
‘I feared for my life’ Carini forced to abandon fight against biological male Khelif IOC condemned for allowing 46-second ‘dangerous’ contest The Daily Telegraph2 Aug 2024By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris In one of the most shaming episodes in Olympic history, Italy’s Angela Carini was forced after only 46 seconds to abandon a fight against an Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif, who had failed two sex tests, claiming she had been hit so hard that she feared for her life. There was widespread condemnation of the International Olympic Committee for how it had placed Carini in a position of extreme danger by pitting her against Khelif, a biological male, to the point where she said that she “couldn’t breathe anymore”. She could be heard telling her corner during the fight: “Non e giusto” (“It’s not fair”). Khelif was allowed to compete at these Games despite being thrown out of last year’s World Championships for failing a testosterone test. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who fights today, was disqualified for the same reason. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association, said DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. XY is the male chromosomal make-up, while female is XX. The bout was already fiercely controversial before a punch was thrown, with the IOC under intense pressure to justify how Carini could be allowed to enter a boxing ring when her safety could not be guaranteed. The harrowing scenes here at North Paris Arena immediately showed that such fears were justified. A first punch from Khelif loosened the chinstrap on Carini’s headgear, before a second struck her on her chin and splashed blood on her shorts. Carini, 25, was distraught in the aftermath of the fight, disclosing that she had feared for her life. Having crumpled to the canvas, she said, with tears streaming down her face: “I am heartbroken. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this. After the second blow to the nose, I couldn’t breathe anymore. I went to my coach and said ‘enough’. “It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.” A United Nations expert unequivocally condemned the Olympic rules that enabled the bout to take place. Reem Alsalem, the UN’S special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said: “Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex.” Emanuele Renzini, Carini’s coach, was adamant that the decision to quit the bout was not premeditated. “It would have been easier not to show up, because all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days,” he said. “I hope my nation won’t take it badly,” Carini said. On the contrary, Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, denounced the IOC for failing to intervene. “It is a fact that with the levels of testosterone present in the Algerian athlete, the race at the start does not seem fair,” she said, explaining that she had opposed the IOC’S stance “for years”. “The fact that Angela withdrew makes me even more sad. I was emotional when she wrote, ‘I will fight’, because in these things dedication, head and character also count. This, from my point of view, was not a competition on equal terms.” Boxing is a sport with one of the most pronounced performance differences between the sexes. An article published in 2020 in the Journal of Experimental Biology documented how men punch, on average, 2.6 times harder than women due to immutable advantages in shoulder width and bicep strength. The IOC had known all about the damage that Khelif was capable of inflicting. During a fight in Guadalajara in December 2022, the Algerian landed shots of such force on Mexico’s Brianda Tamara that the beaten fighter said she was relieved to escape the ring alive. “I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.” Despite this, the IOC decided that Khelif met the criteria to compete. Khelif, 25, was unrepentant, declaring: “I am here for gold. I’ll fight anyone.” The next opponent for Khelif in the women’s welterweight division is Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, 23. She maintained she was undeterred about walking into a rapidly growing scandal. “I’m not scared,” she said. “If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win. So, let’s do it. I can’t wait for that fight.” Barry Mcguigan, the former world featherweight champion, argued that Khelif’s victory over Carini had been “shocking, dangerous and profoundly unfair on women and girls”. “IOC, hang your head in shame,” he said. Author JK Rowling, a consistent advocate for women’s sport to be reserved exclusively for those born female, told the IOC: “A young female boxer has just had everything she has worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring for her. You’re a disgrace, your safeguarding is a joke, and Paris 2024 will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.” Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, fumed the defeat should “not be allowed to happen” and called for “swab tests” to be reintroduced. Even in the face of such fury, the IOC reiterated that Khelif would be kept in the Olympics. Article Name:‘I feared for my life’ Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris Start Page:1 End Page:1
Institutional failure on a sickening scale brings shame to IOC Kowtowing to the gender-id lobby resulted in a woman beaten up by a biological male in the name of sport The Daily Telegraph2 Aug 2024By Oliver Brown Damaging episode: Imane Khelif (left) celebrates her win over Angela Carini, after a brutal and brief fight (right) A place at the Olympics meant everything to Angela Carini. “I want to show you something,” she said, pulling her mobile phone out of her pocket on the day she celebrated qualifying for the Italian boxing team. “It’s my father. He said to me, ‘Angelina, a champion in boxing is a bit like in cycling. They see the last kilometre and you know what they do? They pedal even harder. So, go all the way, because I’ll always be with you.’ And so I did. Until the end, I fought with blood in my eyes.” Her father, Giuseppe, died in 2021, just days after she returned from the Tokyo Games. As such, Carini had made it her abiding quest here in Paris to honour him, to use the grandest stage in sport to channel all the wisdom he had imparted to her. In 46 seconds, that dream was destroyed, sabotaged by the spinelessness of an International Olympic Committee that chose pandering to activists and ideologues over protecting a woman’s safety on what should have been the greatest day of her young life. It is a scandal, an institutional failure on a sickening scale. The aspirations of this vibrant 25-yearold from Naples have been shattered because the people in power saw nothing wrong with a woman heading into a boxing ring to take on an Algerian opponent who had failed two sex tests, with the International Boxing Association revealing the presence of male chromosomes. And so they sent her, unforgivably, into harm’s way. It took Carini just two punches to suffer the consequences of their cowardice. There have been few sights more heartbreaking than those of Carini, desperate and desolate, expressing hope in the post-fight interview that she had not let her country down, or her late father. At several points, the Italian press attache had to lean in to comfort her. She was too raw to appreciate the grotesque injustice that had been perpetrated against her. For the only figures guilty of letting anyone down are those wretched bureaucrats at the IOC, who prioritise rubbing shoulders at soirees with Snoop Dogg and Ariana Grande above ensuring a female will not be smashed in the face by a biological male. On the same day as this appalling abrogation of care, Kirsty Burrows, head of the IOC’S “safe sport unit”, was blathering about the Paris Olympics offering the “most comprehensive package of safeguarding initiatives of any sporting event in history”. Is that right, Kirsty? Try telling that to Carini, who did not look very safe at all while being bludgeoned by Imane Khelif. Truly, the tin ear of the IOC’S gutless hierarchy makes you want to scream. Now they are reaping what they have sown, establishing that someone biologically male can beat up a woman in the name of sport. The picture at the end of this gruesome excuse for a fight – of the Guatemalan referee standing between Khelif, who raised a fist in triumph, and Carini, who stared mournfully at the canvas – contained multitudes. One of these boxers had been shielded by the IOC establishment, the other horribly neglected. Years of craven kowtowing to the gender-id lobby have brought us to this point. The IOC has long seemed more interested in fluffing up its right-on credentials than in ensuring that women can enjoy fair sport. I remember, covering Laurel Hubbard competing in the women’s weightlifting in Tokyo despite only recently transitioning, seeing leaflets left on journalists’ desks by various pressure groups. These warned ominously against listening to organisations “formed with the express purpose of fighting against transgender equality”. Usually, as an apolitical body, the IOC cracks down fiercely on anything resembling propaganda in its venues. This, though, it was content to let slide. For it has always shown a far closer interest in promoting a philosophy of inclusion at all costs than in realising the potential implications for the integrity of the female category. The women’s 800metres in Rio should have served as the starkest warning. The champion, Caster Semenya, was 46XY, genetically male. Two other athletes with differences in sexual development filled out the podium. And in the shadows, Britain’s Lynsey Sharp cried her eyes out at seeing the medal for which she had strived so long snatched away. What has happened to Carini, though, is far worse. The Olympics have created many situations for women that are unfair. But this time, the IOC threw the Italian into one that was patently unsafe. And it knew about it. Mark Adams, the IOC’S spokesman, had been asked multiple times for a response to worries about Khelif. He brushed off the questions with disdain, ordering journalists not to engage in a “witch-hunt” and to “dial it down”. Well, now he has everybody from the Italian prime minister to the United Nations expert on violence against women and girls to highlight the offensive absurdity of his position. An issue that could have been resolved has spiralled into an international incident. Good luck with dialling that down. For anyone who has sat on the fence on this subject, this should be the moment that the scales fall from the eyes. Anyone seeing the blood smeared over Carini’s shorts or the despair etched on her face can recognise now that this is where supine governance leads. This is where a consistent and tone-deaf refusal to heed the concerns of women ends up. For anyone who has sat on the fence on this subject, this should be the moment that the scales fall from the eyes Article Name:Institutional failure on a sickening scale brings shame to IOC Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:By Oliver Brown Start Page:2 End Page:2
You cannot call this sport – it is disgusting By allowing a boxer with the characteristics of a biological man fight a woman the IOC has legitimised male violence The Daily Telegraph2 Aug 2024Suzanne Moore Unfair advantage: Algeria’s Imane Khelif stands over Italy’s Angela Carini after their short-lived bout A woman on her knees sobbing after being punched hard in the face by an opponent who has characteristics of a biological male. She may have a broken nose. Is this sport now? Is this the Olympic ideal? Because that is what we have just witnessed. This is apparently justifiable. Angela Carini, a world and European Championships silver medallist, pulled out of a fight with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after 46 seconds. I do not know how she stepped in the ring in the first place. She is no fragile flower but she said she had never been hit so hard before. Through her tears, she said she was there to honour her father, and she was a warrior but just had to stop. As so many have warned, had she continued, God knows what damage would have been done. Controversy has swirled around this match. Both Khelif and a boxer from Taiwan called Lin Yu-ting have previously been disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships for having unfair advantage over female fighters by the International Boxing Association. This was not simply because of naturally high levels of testosterone but because they both have XY chromosomes. A simple cheek swab is usually enough to confirm this. Women have XX chromosomes. Their biology is male. Neither of these boxers are “trans”; they were probably born with what is called Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) but what it means is that they have the strength and power of males because, genetically, that is what they are. Footage of Khelif fighting Brianda Tamara in 2022 shows the force of this boxer’s punch. The IBA at the 11th hour has said both Khelif and Yu-ting should not be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games but Mark Adams of the International Olympic Committee Propped up by the smug IOC, they have been allowed to carry on the pretence that this is a fair fight has repeatedly defended the inclusion of these genetic males in women’s categories by saying that Khelif ’s passport says “Female”. What a pathetic argument. Adams and the Eurosport commentator who said nothing should get in the ring with this “female”. It is a flagrant disregard for the safety of women. Any notion of fairness has gone out of the window. Boxing is a dangerous activity for anyone. To knowingly put a woman in the ring with a biological male is to legitimise male violence and call it sport. It is disgusting. This is not about inclusivity and there may be some sports in which strength, male puberty and musculature does not matter so much. That question is up for debate, but the vast majority of people and sports federations know to call time on what is actually dangerous for women: for instance, rugby. Someone with a DSD cannot help the way they were born but they can choose not to take medals from women and they can choose not to cause injury. But, propped up by the smug IOC, they have been allowed to carry on the pretence that this is a fair fight. That participation demeans the sport of boxing; it demeans sportswomen. All those who enabled this or kept schtum about it should be on their knees. Instead, we see this brave Italian woman sobbing and repeating, “Non e giusto” (“it’s not right”). Indeed, it is gut-punchingly wrong. And now the world has seen it, surely it must stop. Article Name:You cannot call this sport – it is disgusting Publication:The Daily Telegraph Author:Suzanne Moore Start Page:4 End Page:4

Saturday Total: 11

The Guardian [2]
Hungarians protest to IOC over Khelif bout The Guardian3 Aug 2024North Paris Arena The Hungarian Boxing Association has protested to the International Olympic Committee over its decision to allow the Algerian fighter Imane Khelif to compete at Paris 2024, before her quarter-final bout with one of its boxers. The Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Hamori ( ) is due to fight Khelif today as a gender eligibility storm around women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics continues. Khelif won her fight against the Italian Angela Carini on Thursday and yesterday Chinese Taipei fighter Lin Yu-ting, the second boxer at the centre of the controversy also won, outpointing Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova. The presence of Lin and Khelif has come under intense scrutiny at these Games. Both fighters competed without incident at Tokyo 2020, but were disqualified from last year’s world championships at a late stage by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria. Lin and Turdibekova touched gloves after their bout, but did not embrace or shake Article Name:Hungarians protest to IOC over Khelif bout Publication:The Guardian Author:North Paris Arena Start Page:1 End Page:1
In and around the Olympics boxing arena, facts and fairness are taking a battering The Guardian3 Aug 2024Barney Ronay North Paris Arena ▲ A tearful Angela Carini quits her bout against Imane Khelif On a packed afternoon at the low-fi North Paris Arena, essentially a reconfigured trade fair hall, the Paris 2024 boxing programme staged the most wildly politicised, toxic and largely misunderstood event of these Olympics. Yes: this was a travesty. But not perhaps the travesty many people might have had in mind. Definition: a distorted or false version of events. All that was really certain in Paris was that we got one of those. At 3.30pm Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting stepped between the ropes to fight Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the opening round of the women’s featherweight competition. In the process, and in an extraordinary development in her own previously regulation existence, Lin did so under the gaze of Donald Trump, JK Rowling and the entire massed global commentariat of a complex and acrimonious war of ideas and identity in which she is essentially non-combatant. Can we just be really clear on this? Lin is not, as far as anyone knows, a transgender woman. Lin is also not male, as far as anyone knows, and has never changed her gender identity. Lin was born a girl 28 years ago. She is an athlete competing under her birth passport as a woman, backed also, as has been reported in her home country, by a Taiwanese identity number assigned at birth that begins with a 2, meaning this person was born a baby girl. Lin is a career fighter, much respected in her home country. She had until a year ago, as we must assume in the absence of any other evidence, no idea that this issue was going to subsume her life. This is what has happened since. At last year’s world championships Lin took a swab test which, according to the International Boxing Association (IBA), indicated the presence of sufficient male chromosomes to disqualify her from the women’s event. This has begun to happen more regularly in elite sport. A similar thing happened to the Namibian runner Christine Mboma. Mboma grew up as a girl and a woman, found she was good at running, went into competition and discovered after being tested before the Tokyo Games that she was producing a large amount of testosterone, could not have children and would now live with this previously unknown condition. She competed and won 200m silver in Tokyo but her subsequent ban from competition when World Athletics changed its rules feels odd in a certain light, a case of Sebastian Coe and pals taking it on themselves to define what a woman is allowed to be, not just on the outside but also on the inside. Mbomba, it could be argued, simply has an innate physical capacity, as Usain Bolt has. This may or may not be the case with Lin. No one knows if she, like Mboma, is what elite sport calls a DSD athlete, which means a person with a different, less linear personal biology, that may convey certain performance advantages. Only one thing is really clear. It is all very hard on Lin and the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who had a similar result in a test taken by the IBA. Both boxed without incident in Tokyo. Both have competed for years at this level. Khelif has a similar backstory. She was born and grew up as female. She is not doping, and is not trying to assert a new gender identity. She also comes from Algeria, which continues to outlaw homosexuality, which has no visible LGBTQ+ culture, support network or any progressive culture on such issues. This is by any objective measure, a startling situation for a 25-year-old Algerian woman to find herself in. How to digest or process or deal with this? Is this even a trans issue, as so many seem to have assumed? It is certainly a sporting and practical one. Clearly trans people deserve, and are long overdue, full personal, legal and emotional freedom to be as they are and do as they please. At the same time there are obvious problems with encouraging people who have been through a testosterone-fuelled male puberty to compete in particular events against people who have not. These are hugely complex, essentially irresolvable issues. Equal rights, health concerns, wellbeing and access to sport for young women all come into play. It is an impossibly difficult balance of interests, one that requires care and thought and sensitivity on all sides; that can only progress with trust and respect, by an absence of censure and blame, and above all by total clarity on the facts. At which point, well, here comes everybody. Here comes the startling ineptitude and tardiness of the IOC in addressing this issue. Here come stampeding online hordes, opportunist politicians looking for a pinata to thwack. Here comes a misunderstanding of the facts, pre-cooked argument looking for its nail which is always the same nail. Why is the author of the Harry Potter series engaged in an armslength and factually uncertain feud with the Taiwanese boxing community over the sex of an Olympic featherweight contender? What could Trump possibly have to offer on this subject? Why are two groups of people who really do have more in common than what divides them, women who are concerned about women’s rights, and trans people who are concerned about trans rights, so entrenched in this battle that an unresolved issue of biology in women’s boxing becomes just another nuclear button issue? There was a visceral reaction to Khelif’s bout on Thursday. There are urgent unresolved questions about the safety of women in sport. But Khelif is also a person who was born a woman and has, all evidence suggests, always considered herself a woman. In the end the only obvious fault here lies with the IOC’S malfunctioning boxing unit, which has managed this situation with a ham-fisted and weirdly aggressive sense of its own certainty. For now, and with the competition ongoing, there are no sensible answers. Probably, seeing Lin and Khelif in the flesh, as people, not avatars in a war of ideologies, might help. Another person who deserves our sympathy is Turdibekova, Lin’s opponent in Paris, a 22-year-old Uzbek whose hero is Muhammad Ali and whose dream is to win a gold medal. That will not happen here. Lin took the fight in a routine points decision and will move on to fight in the last 16. At the end she was pursued towards the safety of the players’ area by a swarming media crew, before exiting without saying a word. Her coach did stop to say a few words in Mandarin, looked largely nonplussed. Asked a question by an American journalist his only response before scooting back behind the barricades was to shrug and say “Hey. It’s the Olympic Games.” Which is at least, exceptionally in the current circumstances, undeniably correct. This will continue to run. Perhaps though it can become just a little more civil, a little kinder to the people at its centre, and a little more anchored in fact. Article Name:In and around the Olympics boxing arena, facts and fairness are taking a battering Publication:The Guardian Author:Barney Ronay North Paris Arena Start Page:11 End Page:11
The Times [2]
‘Witch-hunt’ claim adds to bad blood over boxing Matt Lawton - Chief Sports Correspondent, Martyn Ziegler - Chief Sports Reporter, David Brown Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan defeated Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan yesterday Critics of boxers allowed to compete as women despite failing gender tests were accused of a “witch-hunt” by the Olympic organisers yesterday as a second fighter won her match. Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan left Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in tears a day after Imane Khelif of Algeria was declared the victor when Angela Carini of Italy abandoned the clash after only 46 seconds “to save my life”. Both winners were banned from last year’s world championships after failing gender tests. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed a reference from Khelif’s official profile yesterday saying “her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility”. Concern intensified with Lisa Nandy, the sport secretary, saying it was “incredibly uncomfortable” to watch Khelif’s bout and she would be speaking to sporting bodies about “inclusion, fairness and safety”. Mark Adams, the spokesman for Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, defended the decision to allow Khelif to fight. “The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case. On that there is consensus. Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman. If we start acting on every issue, every allegation that comes up, then we start having the kind of witchhunts that we’re having now,” he said. Yesterday Carini said she wanted to apologise to Khelif, telling the Gazzetta dello Sport: “I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. All this controversy makes me sad.” Adams has been friends with Sir Keir Starmer since school and was one of the prime minister’s four best men at his wedding. The former broadcast journalist was appointed the IOC’s director of communications in 2009. He said: “What I would urge is that we try to take the culture war out of this and actually address the issues and the people and think about the individuals concerned and the real damage that is being done by misinformation.” The IOC said Khelif, 25, was barred from the World Championships after the International Boxing Association, which has been dropped as an official governing body because of its links with Russia, claimed she had high levels of testosterone. Adams said that testosterone tests were a not “some kind of magic bullet” to determine gender. “There are many women with higher levels of testosterone than men.” The double gold medallist Nicola Adams yesterday expressed fear about competitors who have gone through male puberty fighting against women – although there is no proof either Lin or Khelif have done so. Adams, who was Olympic flyweight champion for Team GB in 2012 and 2016, posted on Twitter/ X: “After years of fighting for women’s boxing to even exist in the Olympics and then all the training they go through to get there it was hard to watch another fighter be forced to give up on her Olympic dreams. People not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty, should not be able to compete in women’s sport.” JK Rowling, the author and campaigner, asked the IOC to explain “why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment”. The Sex Matters charity said: “Sporting bodies worldwide need to act now to protect fairness and safety for women.” Lin, 28, a two-time Olympian, advanced to the quarter-finals tomorrow. Khelif is to face Anna Luca Hamori, 23, in the quarter-final today.
A simple cheek swab can protect female boxers The IOC’s dangerous and misogynistic ideas about gender inclusion are to blame for the humiliation of Angela Carini Janice Turner @VICTORIAPECKHAM After taking questions on the women’s boxing furore with his usual huffy condescension, the International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams strived for a little consensus. “I hope,” he said, “we are all agreed we aren’t going to go back to the bad old days of sex testing.” Actually, we are not. Adams was perpetuating the myth that sex testing was archaic, cruel and degrading, involving athletes dropping their pants for doctors to check they had the “right” genitals. In fact, a sex test was conducted only once in a female athlete’s career: a quick cheek swab with a cotton bud revealing biological sex was added to her permanent record. Anti-doping tests are far more intrusive and can happen any time. But at the 1996 Atlanta Games an IOC questionnaire asked female athletes if the cheek swab should continue (82 per cent said yes) and whether it made them “anxious” (94 per cent said no). Nonetheless the IOC ignored almost 1,000 elite women who replied and abolished cheek swabs for Sydney in 2000. That decision exemplifies the IOC’s contempt for female competitors and is the very reason the tough, seasoned Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned her bout after 46 seconds to kneel weeping on the canvas with a bloody nose. It is also why in 2016 at Rio, the women’s 800m podium was filled entirely with biological males, including Caster Semenya who took gold. Those runners and the two controversial boxers at these Games — Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting — have a DSD (difference of sexual development), that wilfully misunderstood phenomenon. They are not “intersex” — ie between or a “mix of” the two sexes — because no one is. They almost certainly have 5-ARD: they are biological males with XY chromosomes but whose bodies lack the receptor that creates external male genitalia. In developing countries many are read as female at birth and raised as girls. But at puberty their internal testes start producing testosterone at normal levels so they acquire most of the strength, muscle mass, height and power of other men. In other words, they experience male puberty after which many start living as men. Semenya is pictured in her autobiography at 15, broadshouldered and bare-chested on a beach in swimming trunks. Undoubtedly living in this ambiguous state in countries like South Africa or Algeria with rigid gender roles and violent homophobia is a tough fate. Such people have found refuge in women’s sport where, unsurprisingly, they have excelled. African coaches began deliberately scouting for DSD males to train for high-level female competition, since after 2000 they even had a shot at Olympic gold. But in recent years, individual sport federations have tightened up eligibility rules regarding trans athletes and those with male DSDs. (These are totally separate, although conflated by trans activists who use DSDs to “prove” sex is not binary but a spectrum.) Each sport has followed the same trajectory. Males start winning lower-category female contests, women lose out, no one cares until a male transitions into elite female sport: Laurel Hubbard into weightlifting; Lia Thomas, swimming; Emily Bridges, cycling. After an outcry each sport banned anyone who transitioned after male puberty from the women’s category and insisted DSD males reduce testosterone. Only World Athletics, thanks to Seb Coe, acted before, say, a mediocre male sprinter fancied FloJo’s 100m record. Why does the IOC still deny science? Perhaps to stay ‘relevant’ Yet what of the IOC itself? In high dudgeon at this defence of female sports, it issued a gender framework document. This stated there should be “no presumption of advantage” just because an athlete is male or has a DSD. The first principle of this utterly incoherent paper is “inclusion”, which, as every sport federation has ruled, is wholly at odds with fairness to women. Second is “prevention of harm” — not to stop women like Carini being harmed by a male fist but to protect those who might suffer from being ineligible to compete. What we see in Paris women’s boxing is the IOC’s ludicrous, dangerous, misogynistic principles given full rein. Since it banished the International Boxing Association (IBA) for unrelated corruption issues, the IOC has run Olympic boxing itself. After being disqualified from IBA world championships for failing gender tests Khelif and Lin, tellingly, did not appeal. They knew the Olympics beckoned where there was neither sex testing nor testosterone rules. Mark Adams said it was enough they had female passports, a document anyone can change. In other words, the IOC allowed eligibility to women’s boxing — a sport that for safety reasons never stopped being sex-based — to be based purely on self-ID. This calamity is not merely the IOC’s fault — it is precisely what it wants. This is sport run according to its stated principles of gender inclusion and the obliteration of sex classes. For Paris it even issued a glossary for journalists of “terms to avoid”, including “born female” and “biologically male”. Yet fewer people will now be censored. The IOC is not just at odds with sport federations but many current female athletes, including female boxing champions who are refusing to fight Khelif and Lin. As the tide goes out on pernicious gender ideology, why does the IOC still deny science? Perhaps to court US sponsors or stay “relevant”. But mainly because it is profoundly institutionally sexist. In 2015, it allowed any male who reduced testosterone (to a rate still ten times the female average) into female sports without consulting a single woman. It discriminates against female athletes by denying their biology where once it used it against them, banning women from the ski jump until 2014 because it might damage their wombs. And it abolished a simple test that would have stopped Paris being remembered for televising male violence. Bring back the cheek swab: for female boxers the bad old days are now.
Daily Mail [2]
Boxing row: Round two Second gender storm as Keir’s Olympics pal gets in muddle Daily Mail3 Aug 2024From Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter in Paris Tears: Imane Khelif celebrates her victory over a weeping Angela Carini in Paris ROUND 1, THURSDAY OLYMPICS spokesman Mark Adams – best man at Keir Starmer’s wedding – was on the ropes yesterday defending the boxing row that has engulfed Paris 2024. After Angela Carini, an italian woman, quit to ‘save my life’ following two savage punches from a ‘biologically male’ opponent, Mr Adams said the word ‘female’ on a passport was enough to let a boxer fight a woman. Another woman boxer previously banned for failing a gender test also won her opening fight at the Olympics yesterday. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, 28, punched her way into the quarter final, leaving her opponent Sitora Turdibekova in tears. The global backlash was sparked by Thursday’s bout in which Algeria’s imane Khelif – who previously failed a competition gender test – pummelled Carini so hard the italian quit after just 46 seconds, protesting it was ‘so unjust’. Author JK rowling, italy’s prime minister, the Un’s envoy on women’s safety and a string of sports stars have condemned the international Olympic Committee (IOC) for allowing the fight. rowling said ‘a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment... isn’t sport’. Asked about the global storm at a press conference in Paris, the IOC’S spokesman admitted that Games bosses had found themselves in the middle of a ‘minefield’ He added: ‘Unfortunately, as with all minefields, there is not one simple explanation. everyone wants a black and white explanation. That does not exist, neither in the scientific community or anywhere else.’ Mr Adams, who has warned against a ‘witch hunt’ against Khelif, is a friend of Sir Keir – calling him ‘my old mate’ – having gone to school with the Prime Minister. One of four best men at the PM’s 2007 wedding, he joined the IOC as director of communications in 2009. repeatedly asked yesterday if the boxing match had been safe for women, he said: ‘Safety is our number one concern.’ But he then suggested Olympics chiefs were powerless to challenge an athlete suspected of being a different gender, saying they had to trust what it said on their passport. ‘We have to go on the passport,’ he added. He said Khelif was ‘born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case.’ Khelif was born female but reportedly has Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), a rare medical condition that results in varying genes, hormones and reproductive organs. After a test on her and also Taiwan’s Yu-Ting at the world championships last year, they were both disqualified as ‘biologically male’. However the IOC said these tests were conducted by russian-controlled officials and were ‘cobblers’. allowing both to compete at Paris. Last night Sally Parkin, of campaign group Sex Matters, said: ‘Sex is a material reality. it is not changed by what’s written on a piece of paper. if this is the extent of the requirements, it gives no confidence this is a fair fight.’ She added: ‘it really isn’t a minefield. Sex testing is done with a simple cheek swab. Most female athletes wanted it and still do. The IOC… need to ask women, and listen to the answer.’ Dr emma Hilton, developmental biologist at Manchester University, said: ‘if there is biology that’s going to help you punch someone harder because you’ve got male biology, then... it’s not just unfair, it’s dangerous.’ ‘A man beating a woman isn’t sport’ ‘No confidence this is a fair fight’ Article Name:Boxing row: Round two Publication:Daily Mail Author:From Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter in Paris Start Page:11 End Page:11
‘If she is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me’ Khelif’s opponent vows she isn’t scared Daily Mail3 Aug 2024By MIKE KEEGAN Sports News Correspondent LUCA HAmoRI, the Hungarian set to face gender-row fighter Imane Khelif today, has shared a picture on social media of a female boxer facing a horned beast in the ring. As the furore continues to mar the olympics — with victory yesterday for the second boxer banned from a previous competition for failing a gender test — the Hungarian Boxing Association protested to Games bosses and their own olympic committee over today’s bout. Hamori says she is ‘not scared’ of her opponent and claimed Italy’s Angela Carini ‘gave up’ when she quit her bout with Khelif after 46 seconds on Thursday. The 23-year-old took to Instagram to repost a Beauty and the Beast-like image of a long-haired, slight woman in blue shorts facing off with a muscle-bound creature in red who towers over her beneath the olympic rings. ‘If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win,’ Hamori said of Khelif. ‘So let’s do it. I can’t wait for the fight. ‘In my local club I have only guys and male team-mates. It’s not new for me.’ lajos Berko, a member of the HBA board, said: ‘I am very sad that there is a scandal and that we have to talk about a topic that is not compatible with sport. This is unacceptable and outrageous.’ In a twist yesterday, Carini said she wanted to apologise to Khelif. ‘All this controversy makes me sad,’ she told Gazzetta dello Sport. ‘I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IoC said she can fight, I respect that decision.’ Carini, 25, also expressed regret at not shaking hands with Khelif after their short bout. ‘It wasn’t something I intended to do,’ she said. ‘Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my olympics had gone up in smoke.’ She added that if she met Khelif again, she would ‘embrace her’. meanwhile, Taiwan’s lin yu-ting, who was also thrown out of the world Championships, cruised into the quarter-finals after dominating her opponent from Uzbekistan. The featherweight, 28, secured a unanimous decision over Sitora Turdibekova before refusing, along with her opponent, to speak to reporters. elsewhere, Culture Secretary lisa Nandy said it was ‘incredibly uncomfortable’ to watch Khelif’s fight and added that she would be speaking to sporting bodies about ‘inclusion, fairness and safety’. Nicola Adams, Britain’s most successful female boxer of all time, claimed the situation was ‘unfair’ and ‘dangerous’. In the US, presidential candidate donald Trump vowed to ‘keep men out of women’s sports’. olympics organisers hit back at their critics. Spokesperson mark Adams said the pair’s ban from the world Championships last year was taken ‘arbitrarily’ and that Khelif ‘was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female and has a female passport’. He added: ‘There has been some confusion that somehow it’s a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case scientifically.’ Adams also queried the testing by the International Boxing Association, which led to the ban. ‘we don’t know if it was accurate,’ he said. ‘we don’t know whether we should believe the test.’ Article Name:‘If she is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me’ Publication:Daily Mail Author:By MIKE KEEGAN Sports News Correspondent Start Page:105 End Page:105
Telegraph [5]
Starmer’s best man in Olympics gender row The Daily Telegraph - Saturday3 Aug 2024By Dominic Penna Imane Khelif, left, defeated Angela Carini, who quit the fight after 46 seconds The official at the centre of the Olympic boxing gender row was one of Sir Keir Starmer’s best men at his wedding. Mark Adams, the spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has known the Prime Minister since the two men were at school together. Mr Adams expressed concerns earlier this week about a “witch hunt” against boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, who have previously failed gender eligibility tests. THE official at the centre of the Olympic boxing gender row was one of Sir Keir Starmer’s best men at his wedding. Mark Adams, the spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has known the Prime Minister since the two men were at school together. Mr Adams expressed concerns earlier this week about a “witch hunt” against boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, who have previously failed gender eligibility tests. On Thursday, Angela Carini, the Italian boxer, was forced to abandon a fight against Khelif at the games in Paris, claiming she had been hit so hard by her opponent that she feared for her life. The IOC faced widespread condemnation for placing Carini, who had a suspected broken nose, in a position of danger. Responding to Khelif’s victory on Thursday, Mr Adams told reporters: “Testosterone is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone, which is in what would be called ‘male levels’ and still be women, and still compete as a woman. “So this panacea, this idea that you do one test for testosterone, that’s not the case I’m afraid. But each sport needs to deal with its issues, they know their sports and their disciplines the best and they need to target and tailor I should say the testing and so on. “But I hope we’re all agreed we’re not calling for people to go back to the bad old days of sex testing, which was a terrible thing to do and I’m sure we all agree that’s not the way forward in this situation.” He went on to insist “this is not a transgender issue” and criticised “misreporting” of the row, which has cast a shadow over the Paris Olympics. Khelif and Yu-Ting were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March last year after failing gender tests. However, the IOC has different rules from the International Boxing Association. Mr Adams said earlier this week that he was comfortable with the rules. He said: “These boxers are entirely eligible, they are women on their passports, they have competed for many years. “It is not helpful to start stigmatising people who take part in sport like this. They are women who competed in Tokyo. We all have a responsibility to dial down this and not turn it into some kind of witch-hunt. These are regular athletes who have competed for many years in boxing, they are entirely eligible and they are women on their passports,” In 2014, Mr Adams referred to Sir Keir as “my old mate” as he congratulated him on his selection as the Labour candidate for St Pancras and Holborn at the 2015 general election. “Over the moon that my old mate Keir Starmer has been selected… He’ll be a real campaigner for constituents,” he said. When Sir Keir was subsequently elected on May 7, Mr Adams wrote: “Congrats to a great bloke.” Mr Adams, a former broadcast journalist, joined the IOC as its director of communications in 2009. He worked at the BBC, ITN and EuroNews before spending 10 years in a senior communications role for the World Economic Forum Like Sir Keir, who has a season ticket at the Emirates Stadium, Mr Adams is a lifelong fan of Arsenal Football Club. Speaking to Tom Baldwin, Sir Keir’s biographer, in May, Mr Adams said: “Keir’s a regular bloke who has always liked a pint or two, talking nonsense with his mates and playing far more football than is good for him. “It’s how he plugs back into his private network and recharges himself.” In a separate profile of the Prime Minister in The Times, Mr Adams said he often teases Sir Keir about how he is becoming more like his late father Rodney, adding: “Keir hates it when I do that.” Mr Adams attended Reigate Grammar School in the 1970s alongside Sir Keir and fondly recalled his time at the school on social media. Mr Adams has lived in Lausanne since he began his role with the IOC, having lived and worked in Geneva during his time at the World Economic Forum. In a 2020 profile of Sir Keir in the Financial Times, Mr Adams described him as a perfectionist “does everything to the nth degree”. He recalled: “I once asked him why Olympics spokesman who defended rules allowing Algerian to compete went to school with PM ‘We have a responsibility to dial down this and not turn it into some kind of witch-hunt’ he gave up playing the flute and he said, ‘If I can’t practise every day, I can’t be top level, so I don’t want to do it’. “As a lawyer, he would work on cases until 3am and get up at 7am and feel fine. He is someone who works like a dog but also has a forensic intellect.” In February, Mr Adams was among guests including Sean Dyche, the Everton manager, at a drinks party for senior sport figures held by Sir Keir, who reportedly namechecked his old school friend in his speech. Article Name:Starmer’s best man in Olympics gender row Publication:The Daily Telegraph - Saturday Author:By Dominic Penna Start Page:3 End Page:3
Women are under vicious attack – and too few liberal progressives seem to care The Daily Telegraph - Saturday3 Aug 2024 Femicide appears to have become the “new black” this year. Misogyny has always been in fashion in one guise or another. In the early 20th century it took the form of men trying to stop women having the vote. In the 1940s and 50s, it was the expectation that a woman’s place was in the home. When women rebelled and burned their bras in the 1960s and 70s, they were accused of being dangerous feminists. Women have since been criticised for both earning a living, and staying at home to look after their children. They have had to put up with being sexually harassed at work, spawning the MeToo movement, been historically underpaid for generations compared with their male colleagues, and cruelly let down by a criminal justice system that has never done enough to protect them from men trying to rape and abuse them. Then came the trans extremist movement which once again saw some men – identifying as female – trying to subjugate women by invading their spaces. We’ve seen academic women including Kathleen Stock hounded out of universities, successful women like JK Rowling disowned by the very people she made famous, and ordinary women smeared as bigots simply for trying to stand up for the sisterhood and children’s safeguarding. Until this week, however, I don’t recall ever seeing a woman be actively put in harm’s way in the name of “inclusivity”. In arguably the most grotesque example of rampant wokery the world has ever witnessed, Thursday saw Italian boxer Angela Carini – an athlete so tough she is nicknamed “the Tiger” – having to abandon a bout in just 46 seconds, after being pummelled by an opponent with XY chromosomes. With excessively high testosterone levels, the Algerian fighter Imane Khelif did not meet the International Boxing Association’s gender eligibility criteria to compete within the female category and was banned from their events last year. Khelif was nevertheless permitted to compete in the Olympic Games because, as Mark Adams, spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, put it, she has a “female passport”. This, despite the fact that the Court of Arbitration for Sport formally established that human biology, rather than legal status or gender identity, should be the only means of determining an insuperable male advantage. (Adams, incidentally, was one of the best men at the Prime Minister’s wedding). Khelif may be a woman on her passport, but the IBA’s tests revealed the boxer to be biologically male. Khelif ’s supporters want to make this all about semantics, sensitivities and sensibilities. They’re saying Khelif is a victim of “a witchhunt”. But what this case demonstrates is simply another attempt to sacrifice women’s safety on the altar of progressiveness. Khelif is not transgender, but anyone with XY chromosomes must surely fight men, not women. Not just in the name of fairness, but because the alternative could put female competitors in danger. In 2022, Khelif landed shots of such force on Mexico’s Brianda Tamara that the beaten fighter said she was grateful simply to escape the ring alive. This isn’t sport – it’s sending women boxers on a potential suicide mission. It’s not equality, either, since there is nothing equal about allowing female boxers in the ring with someone who can punch up to 2.6 times harder. Organisations like the IOC have become so blinded by ideology that they are prioritising hurt feelings over the threat of physical harm. Some are attempting to portray Khelif as the injured party in this, when of course it is Carini, a woman trained for years only to have her Olympic dreams dashed in seconds, who is the victim. This shameful episode is just the latest in a long list of recent examples of how humiliating – and outright dangerous – the world has become for women. It isn’t just that we are being forced to compromise our safety to share female-only spaces with biological men. Try being a woman on the internet – now awash with violent pornography, a burgeoning incel movement and toxic influencers like Andrew Tate. Despite all the advances made since the women’s liberation movement more than half a century ago, women seem to be no better protected. Today, police in Britain receive a domestic abuse-related call every 30 seconds. We were starkly reminded of the threat posed to women when Carol Hunt, 61, and her daughters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25, died from crossbow bolt injuries at their home in Bushey last month. The tragic case has understandably provoked outrage – but the sorry truth is that, on average, one woman is killed by an abusive partner or ex-partner every five days in England and Wales. Covid wreaked such havoc on the court system that victims of domestic violence are having to wait years for justice. Only this week, I heard of a family friend who was the victim of a coercive controlling husband for 20 years. Despite the court having initially found in her favour she has to wait months for the courts to resolve the financial issues. With her ex refusing to co-operate at all on the division of their assets, she has been left in complete limbo with two children until the justice system can get its act together. Yet at least her case got to court. The same cannot be said for the majority of rape victims in this country. As Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner, pointed out in 2021, the distressing truth is that if a woman is raped in the UK today, her chances of seeing justice are thin. Since 2016-17, we have seen what she described as “a catastrophic” Imane Khelif of Algeria prepares to punch Angela Carini of Italy during the Olympic Women’s Boxing 66kg preliminary round decline in rape prosecutions. And now this horrific Southport episode. How long did it take for the focus to shift from the fact that a dance class of young girls aged six to 10 had been brutally attacked by a male suspect? A day? Maybe two. Amid all the talk about broken Britain, and “enough is enough” – and debates around whether those protesting and rioting are all “far-Right” or not – we seem to have forgotten that this was yet another attack on females. You simply could not conceive of anything more “girly” than a Taylor Swift dance workshop, staffed by dance teachers and yoga instructors. Were they – like the largely female audience at the Manchester Arena Ariana Grande in 2017 – seen as easy targets? Keir Starmer was right to condemn the “gangs of thugs” who “got on trains and buses” to cause mayhem in Southport. But where was the condemnation of the two brothers at Manchester Airport who broke a female police officer’s nose? What was particularly telling about the scenes outside Downing Street on Thursday night was how many women were present (some of whom ended up being man-handled by police). Were they all far-Right thugs and football hooligans? Or is it more likely that they are women desperate for someone to finally stand up for them and their daughters? diminishing numbers of them actually work full time ( just 33 per cent, compared with nearly 40 per cent just five years ago). So although we have more GPs – 16,400 now compared with 12,500 in 2019 – that increase is not reflected in the number of full-time hours. The result is that the British public are finding GPs inaccessible, with the inevitable, catastrophic consequence that brings. And despite patients already struggling to get appointments, the BMA is trying to introduce a work-to-rule that would “limit daily patient contacts” to a “safe maximum of 25”. They have surely been emboldened to do this by the speed with which Labour caved into junior doctors’ 22.3 per cent pay rise demands. Wes Streeting, the newly installed Labour Health Secretary, hopes to reduce the NHS backlog with evening and weekend appointments. He may soon come to realise that this will never be achieved if GPs are unwilling to work the hours my father used to. Article Name:Women are under vicious attack – and too few liberal progressives seem to care Publication:The Daily Telegraph - Saturday Start Page:19 End Page:19
Hearts of gold! The Daily Telegraph - Saturday3 Aug 2024 GOLD Bryony Page Trampoline GOLD Imogen Grant and Emily Craig Rowing GOLD Scott Brash, Harry Charles and Ben Maher Equestrianism P.2-3 committee, said Lajos Berko, a member of the association’s executive board. “I am very sad there is a scandal and that we have to talk about a topic that is not compatible with sport,” Berko told the nation’s news agency. “This is unacceptable and outrageous.” Nicola Adams, the British double Olympic champion, is part of a growing chorus of pressure calling on the IOC to take action after Khelif ’s first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, abandoned their bout after just 46 seconds. “After years of fighting for women’s boxing to even exist in the Olympics and then all the training they go through to get there, it was hard to watch another fighter be forced to give up on her Olympic dreams,” Adams posted online. Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting both twice failed International Boxing Association eligibility tests to compete as women. Those tests, however, are not recognised by the IOC, which instead accepts national Olympic body approval so long as passports correspond. Yesterday, Lin outpointed Sitora Turdibekova, of Uzbekistan, in a featherweight contest. The fight took place after the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, MPs, author JK Rowling and politicians had already turned on the IOC. Article Name:Hearts of gold! Publication:The Daily Telegraph - Saturday Start Page:1 End Page:1
Another day of disgrace in fight fo The heat continues to rise on an embattled IOC after latest biologically male boxer wins unequal bout with a woman The Daily Telegraph - Saturday3 Aug 2024By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris Stark image: Anna Luca Hamori’s post (above); Lin Yu-ting after beating Sitora Turdibekova (right) After finding herself easily dismantled in all three rounds, Sitora Turdibekova did not linger for the post-fight handshake. Instead she swept out of the ring in tears, distraught at being so conspicuously outclassed by her opponent in reach, speed and power. If it felt as though we had been here before, we had. Barely 24 hours earlier, in fact. For the Uzbek’s conqueror was Lin Yu- ting, of Taiwan, a boxer who, like Algeria’s Imane Khelif, had recorded two sex tests in two years revealing the presence of XY chromosomes. While the fight at North Paris Arena was not as visceral a spectacle as Khelif ’s 46-second destruction of Italy’s Angela Carini, the outcome was the same: a beaten woman weeping, a viewing public in uproar, and an Olympics engulfed by rancour and recrimination. This is a scandal assuming dimensions that the International Olympic Committee can no longer control, with each crushing victory by a biologically male fighter over a female confirming the impression that it has abandoned its fundamental duty of care. Lin was the unanimous winner on points, with Turdibekova holding her head in anguish as the result was announced. Frankly, it had not been much of a contest, with Lin, the top seed in the women’s featherweight division, maximising the reach advantage to rain down shuddering blows and winning every round with every judge except one. Turdibekova’s distress was the worst possible look for the IOC, the day after a sobbing Carini had claimed she feared for her life during the mismatch with Khelif. Both these women needed the global governing body to act decisively to ensure their safety. And both have been abysmally let down. The tone used by IOC spokesman Mark Adams was not quite as disdainful as in previous days, but the language was just as ludicrous. For example, he framed the molten debate over Lin and Khelif ’s involvement in these Olympics as a “culture war”. The latest accepted definition of a culture war is as a struggle between those with progressive and conservative views. But not even Adams, Sir Keir Starmer’s former best man, could plausibly characterise the bad blood in Paris as a case of Left versus Right. After all, even Lisa Nandy, Starmer’s own Culture Secretary, described Khelif ’s victory as an “incredibly uncomfortable watch”. Lin, just like Khelif, was declared by the International Boxing Association to have X and Y chromosomes, the male pattern. The 28-year- old failed sex tests in 2022 and 2023, according to the IBA, and was subsequently stripped of a bronze at last year’s World Championships in Delhi. Lin did not challenge the disqualification. The IBA awarded the medal to Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva, who is also Lin’s next opponent in Paris tomorrow. In Taiwan, there is intense indignation at any suggestions of Lin not being female. The boxer is the cover star of Vogue’s Taiwanese issue this month, while Lai Chingte, the country’s president, has expressed solidarity, saying: “When I met Lin, I saw an athlete who is fearless in the face of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring. Today, when she represents Taiwan, we will all be behind her.” The nation has also struck back with force at JK Rowling after the author wrote, alongside an image of Lin and Khelif: “What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?” The Liberty Times, a Taiwanese newspaper, responded: “It’s one thing to criticise transgender issues, but our Lin Yu-ting is completely not transgender. If JK Rowling can’t tell the difference, this editor suggests she focuses on writing novels.” A city councillor in Taipei has insisted that Lin was “registered female at birth”. Almost by the hour, it is a controversy gathering in global resonance. Even Elon Musk has joined in the outrage in the wake of Khelif ’s performance, endorsing efforts to start “I Stand with Angela Carini” trending on social media. The IOC’s desperate appeals for the temperature to be taken out of the debate are not working. Not when Khelif has another bout scheduled today, against Anna Luca Hamori, a Hungarian who has shared a picture depicting the Algerian as a beast. While there was no clear booing of Lin as the fighters entered North Paris Arena, the crowd were firmly in Turdibekova’s favour, stomping their feet and chanting “Uzbekistan”. Both boxers refused to stop for interviews afterwards. Elsewhere in the city, the mood was tense. A group of women’s rights protesters had travelled from London to gather in Place de la Republique, where they chanted: “The IOC, the world can see, champions of misogyny.” A “Save Women’s Sports” banner was draped at the foot of the iconic statue of Marianne. Reactions could scarcely be more polarised. Although there has been international condemnation that a pair of fighters with failed testosterone tests have been permitted to compete, their compatriots are livid. “Cry!” was the Algerian football team’s taunting message to critics of Khelif. An us-against-the-world mentality is forming in the two countries, and it could yet grow more pronounced. Khelif is a realistic contender to take the Olympic welterweight title, having already reached one gold- medal bout at world level, while Lin is a No 1 seed. The further they advance, the greater the heat on the IOC becomes. In this febrile atmosphere, the very essence of fair sport is at stake. Both women needed the IOC to act decisively to ensure their safety. And both have been abysmally let down Article Name:Another day of disgrace in fight fo Publication:The Daily Telegraph - Saturday Author:By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris Start Page:8 End Page:8

Sunday Total: 12

Observer [2]
Algerian fighter at centre of gender row sheds tears after quarter-final victory Imane Khelif, who is now guaranteed a medal, met with deafening cheers The Observer4 Aug 2024Alexandra Topping North Paris Arena John Locher/AP ABOVE Algeria’s Imane Khelif celebrates her quarter-final victory yesterday A boxer at the centre of the gender eligibility storm at the Paris Olympics wrote her name on the floor of the ring yesterday, and burst into tears after securing an Olympic medal. Algeria’s Imane Khelif was overwhelmed with emotion and repeatedly slammed the floor of the ring with her hands, having beaten the Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Hamori convincingly in the quarter-final of the 66kg category. After the fight, Hamori congratulated her opponent and wished her luck for the remainder of the competition. Asked about the controversy, she said: “I don’t care.” The 25-year-old Khelif is now guaranteed Algeria’s first boxing medal since 2000, after winning the three-round bout 5-0 by unanimous decision, with the prospect of the gold medal in her sights. She faces Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-finals on 6 August. Khelif and the Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting have come under intense scrutiny at these Games. Both fighters competed without incident at Tokyo 2020, but were disqualified from last year’s world championships at a late stage by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet its gender eligibility criteria. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has cast doubts on the tests taken, calling the disqualifications “arbitrary”, while IOC president Thomas Bach said the boxers had been subjected to “hate speech”. In Paris yesterday, Khelif entered the ring to deafening cheers from a large Algerian contingent. She dominated the fight but afterwards was in tears as she walked past a scrum of international journalists. Yacine Arab, the sport manager of the Algerian Olympic Committee, said Khelif had not had her phone with her in the last 24 hours, in a bid to shield her. “This controversy is a joke,” he said. “Everybody knows that Imane was born a girl. She [fought] all her time as a girl, all the competitions she was a girl. When she was losing, nobody talked about this.” Before the fight, the father of the Algerian boxer said criticism of her was “not fair”. Amar Khelif told Reuters: “Having such a daughter is an honour because she is a champion, she honoured me and I encourage her and I hope she will get the medal … Imane is a little girl that has loved sport since she was six years old.” The IBA, led by Umar Kremlev, a Russian national, and funded by the sanctioned company Gazprom, is not running the Olympic boxing competition after it was expelled from the Olympic movement for failing to reform judging and refereeing, and over financial stability and governance issues. Kremlev said of the fighters last year that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. However, the gender eligibility of the two boxers remains unclear. The IOC criticised the IBA for changing its gender rules in the middle of the 2023 world championships. It has said it is happy for both fighters to compete under the less strict gender eligibility rules, based on their passports that were in place for the Tokyo Games in 2021. The IOC stopped blanket sex testing in 1999. Prior to the fight yesterday, Bach said: “We are not talking about the transgender issue here. This is about a woman taking part in a woman’s category. But I repeat here this is not a DSD case.” The IOC subsequently tweeted that Bach had meant to say that this was not a transgender case. “Differences of sex development” (DSD) describes conditions that occur early in pregnancy in which sex development is not typical. It was previously known as “intersex”. The term transgender refers to people whose current gender identity differs from the sex they were registered with at birth. Before yesterday’s bout, the Hungarian Boxing Association said it had protested to the International Olympic Committee and was investigating the possibility of legally challenging Khelif’s presence at the Games. Speaking after the fight, Hungarian Olympic Committee member Balázs Fürjes was more conciliatory. “As loyal members of the International Olympic family we are 100% convinced that the International Committee will make the right decisions,” he said. Article Name:Algerian fighter at centre of gender row sheds tears after quarter-final victory Publication:The Observer Author:Alexandra Topping North Paris Arena Start Page:9 End Page:9
The BMA’s stance on puberty blockers defies key principle of medicine: first, do no harm Doctors’ union attacked the Cass review that found the treatment may pose a risk to children The Observer4 Aug 2024Sonia Sodha We entrust doctors with our health. Patients have the right to expect that those doctors will make decisions based on evidence-based clinical guidelines, not modish fads, grounded in the “first, do no harm” principle. That’s perhaps never more important than when it comes to life-altering medical intervention for children. So it’s hard to make sense of a decision by the governing council of the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, to pass a motion criticising a groundbreaking evidence review of healthcare for gender-questioning children, led by the distinguished paediatrician Hilary Cass. It is a highly contested area of medicine, which is why NHS England commissioned an independent review in 2020. Cass published a damning final report in April, concluding that the NHS specialist gender clinic for children – now closed – put an unknown but significant number of gender-questioning children on puberty-blocking drugs and/or cross-sex hormones, undeterred by the lack of evidence of benefit and potentially very serious risks to their long-term health. This was despite the fact that studies suggest that gender dysphoria resolves itself naturally in many children; is often associated with other underlying factors, including young people processing their own same-sex attraction, neurodiversity, childhood trauma, fear of puberty (especially in girls), and mental health issues; and that a childhood diagnosis of gender dysphoria is not predictive of a lasting trans identity in adulthood. In other words, there is a real risk that putting children on to a medical pathway could cement a temporary distress into something more permanent. The review recommends a complete rethink of NHS services for gender-questioning children: a holistic, therapeutic-first approach, with puberty blockers prescribed for new patients only as part of an NHS research trial – recommendations that the NHS has acted on. There’s no two ways about it: the Cass review pulled back the curtain on how gender-questioning children have been starkly failed by the medical profession. You might think that would prompt reflection. Not at the BMA: it has just announced that its governing council of 69 medics has passed a motion accusing the Cass review of making “unsubstantiated recommendations”, calling for the BMA to “publicly critique” the review and to “lobby… to oppose the implementation of its recommendations”, including halting the use of unevidenced drugs on children outside a trial. The BMA has also, ludicrously, called on the government not to implement the Cass review while it undertakes its own review. It would be one thing if the BMA had a serious critique of the review. It does not. When I asked, it could not tell me which of the Cass recommendations the council believed to be unsubstantiated, saying it would not prejudge its own review. Its press release points to two papers that are not peer reviewed or published in a reputable scientific journal – thus obliged to declare conflicts of interest – as evidence of sufficient concern about the review’s methodology to justify pausing its implementation. The Yale Law School paper cited by the BMA was written by a mix of legal and medical academics, a majority of whom are members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. WPATH is a US organisation whose clinical guidelines for gender-questioning children were directly criticised by the Cass review for its lack of developmental rigour and failure to reference its own systemic review of the evidence. Evidence has since emerged suggesting that WPATH actually tried to suppress the systematic reviews that it commissioned from Johns Hopkins university because the results undermined its preferred approach, and that it was pressured by the Biden administration to remove minimum ages for treatment from its 2022 standards of care. The Cass review also found a study by at least one of the paper’s authors to be of low quality. The second paper that the BMA cites is a preprint that takes an ideological position that evaluating these medical interventions with reference to mental health outcomes is a misguided endeavour because it “contradicts the depathologisation of transness”. One of its authors is the lead signatory of a public letter that spreads misinformation about the Cass review’s methodology that has since been comprehensively debunked. How on earth did the BMA get itself into a position where its doctors are calling for the NHS to reinstate the prescription of unevidenced medicines to children, prompting the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges and the Association of Clinical Psychologists to put out statements in support of the review? I’ve spoken to several of its members who are absolutely furious at the lack of consultation beyond the council, elected on a turnout of just 7% of the BMA’s 160,000-strong membership, and the way this seems to have been stitched up behind closed doors, despite the consultants’ committee last year passing a motion calling on the BMA to facilitate discussion of the Cass review. One council member has gone on the record to say that she believes the BMA’s position to be out of step with its membership. It’s not the first time that the BMA has embarrassed itself by making interventions in critical health policy issues that it doesn’t properly understand; it did the same over Covid vaccines in 2021. It seems that the BMA leadership has been sucked into a polarised debate, characterised by a misinformation campaign by activists and academics who don’t like what the Cass review found. That campaign has included an unsuccessful judicial review of the government’s decision to ban the private prescription of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria (the high court last week ruled that the Cass review amounted to “powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions on the supply of puberty blockers”), and false claims made about young people and suicide that the government’s adviser on suicide prevention described last month as “distressing and dangerous”. Yes, the BMA is run by doctors. But it was clinicians who were behind this scandal in the first place. The BMA’s intervention serves as a reminder of how easily some doctors can become blinded by misinformation to the reason, rationality and evidence that are critical to the best interests of patients. It shows that the publication of the Cass review isn’t enough. The many doctors who stand by “first, do no harm” must ensure that their colleagues return to the evidence in relation to this group of vulnerable children who deserve so much better from the medical profession. The review pulled back the curtain on how genderquestioning children have been starkly failed Article Name:The BMA’s stance on puberty blockers defies key principle of medicine: first, do no harm Publication:The Observer Author:Sonia Sodha Start Page:49 End Page:49
Sunday Times [2]
Next at the OIympics, fairness takes a battering that leaves it out for the count Camilla Long Imane Khelif of Algeria celebrates victory over Italy’s Angela Carini, who said the contest had left her “heartbroken” Next image › If you turn on the Olympics, what is it you wish to see? Incredible skill — hopefully. Raw power, cunning, drama — perhaps. But the one thing I’d wager we all expect to see, what we have to see, is fairness. This applies not just to the Olympics but to all sport, to life in fact. It is what our society, our sense of community, trust and togetherness is based on. It’s funny, isn’t it though, how boring, unphotogenic, old-fashioned, nebby, pen-pushing values tend to get chucked out of the window when sexy, more progressive, more lucrative and viral ones come along. On Thursday, for example, Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, was due to fight Italy’s Angela Carini. Many believe Khelif, who’s said to have XY chromosomes, is in fact a man. But the Olympics welcomes people regardless of their “sex variations” — whatever that means — even if they’ve been disqualified from other big competitions for failing sex tests, as Khelif was last year. So here was this muscle-bound, square-jawed hulk, towering over Carini, delivering punches so hard the Italian couldn’t go on. It was shocking. “Non e giusta,” sobbed Carini, withdrawing after 46 seconds. It’s not fair. Later she said she had quit to “save my life”. Mostly, though, she was “heartbroken”. And, well, I felt the same. Watching, arguably, a man lamp a woman live on television, for entertainment. You wonder: how did it get to this? Is this what men wanted all along? How many more women are we now going to have to watch getting beaten, bloodied and battered in sport by, arguably, men before people accept it is indeed “non giusta”? No matter how much you whinny about “values” or “human rights” or guiding “principles” — the Olympics has ten when it comes to gender, “inclusion” topping the list, naturally, with, laughably, “preventing harm” much further down — this has been an absolute stain on the Games. If you don’t demonstrate fairness, people don’t like it, won’t watch it, will mock it, don’t count it as sport. Why don’t they get it? Fairness is their core brand. It’s not just Khelif. On Friday, another boxer, Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan, stripped last year of a bronze medal for failing a sex test at the world championships, towered over an Uzbek fighter. Watching the match, which Lin won, of course, I thought, thank God for weight categories. Lin is 57kg; Khelif is 66kg. But for that, we could have ended up seeing what looks like a man fighting another man in a women’s boxing final at the Olympics. Why do we have weight categories anyway? A small thing: fairness, rules. Every sporting competition is run, necessarily, on the idea there must be a level playing field, otherwise why divide by sex at all? What I don’t understand is how they can disqualify a backstroker for the tiny error of putting his head up at the wrong time but not give a stuff about this. The Olympics now seems unwilling to solve the problem or, more likely, doesn’t even see it as one, cowed as it is by a group of human rights ideologues who seem to think it is enough to say Khelif was “born female, registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport”. How is the passport relevant? Did they mention it because it was only thing they checked? Besides, when it comes to biological sex, legal means nothing. “This is not a transgender case,” continued the spokesman, Mark Adams — as it happens, one of Sir Keir Starmer’s four best men at his wedding. “This is not a man fighting a woman.” Hmmm. To quote Logan Roy, these are not serious people. Who is this weaponised diversity clown? As it happens, Adams is wrong. If you have XY chromosomes and high testosterone levels — as it’s reasonable to assume these fighters do — for the purpose of sport, if not also life, you are a man. Caster Semenya, for example, has XY chromosomes, was born with a vagina and undescended testicles, which produce testosterone. As she grew up, this hormone built muscle, strengthened her bones, created bigger lungs, allowing her to train harder and longer than women. When she refused to lower her testosterone, she won races. When she did, she didn’t. People like Adams say the matter is “complicated”, as a way of trying to assert himself and put people off questioning it, but it’s not. It really is simple. If you are genetically a man, with testicles, producing testosterone, you are a man. You are not fit to compete with women. There are simple tests for it (and no, we don’t have to go back to the “bad old days of sex tests” as Adams claimed). I can’t believe I’m having to say this. Rio de Janeiro, of course, was notable not only for Semenya’s gold medal in the 800m, but its silver and bronze medallists in that race too, all athletes who, like Semenya, had a disorder of sex difference (DSD). If you look at the picture of them together it is shocking: it looks like three men. Nothing wrong with looking like a man, obviously. Unless you’re competing in women’s sport and look like a man because you are one. Is this how people wish to encourage girls to embrace sport? If so, you can say goodbye to any new Nicola Adamses.
Distasteful, disgusting: the circus continues Algerian Imane Khelif won in the ring again – but both she and her Hungarian opponent are victims of disastrous IOC incompetence OWEN SLOT - Paris Khelif lands another heavy blow in her bout against Hamori, who did not appear overawed Next image › The boxing controversy at the heart of these Olympic Games was transformed into the most distasteful of circuses at the North Paris Arena yesterday. It is disgusting what has befallen two young athletes here, all in the name of sport. The result in the boxing ring was a unanimous victory for the Algerian, Imane Khelif. The greater outcome is a kind of notoriety that neither her nor her Hungarian opponent, Luca Anna Hamori, could have contemplated when they arrived to pursue their Olympic dreams. For a good hour before they stepped in the ring, the large pockets of Algerians in the crowd slowly turned up the volume. By the time the TV screen showed their fighter waiting in the wings, they were creating an almighty din. “Forty million Algerians are with her,” said one to me. Indeed, a nation has come together to defend their athlete who has had the debate over her gender broadcast around the world. “As Algerians, we don’t understand,” said another. “Maybe it’s because she’s so good. It’s the Algerian blood. We hope she gets the gold.” She does, indeed, look a likely candidate for that gold medal, but the winning of such prizes seems secondary to the other fight in which she has found herself. Somehow, then, Hamori became — briefly — the villain here. Her ringwalk followed Khelif’s and when she entered the arena, all those Algerians who had greeted Khelif so warmly started booing her. Remember that Khelif’s previous opponent, Angela Carini, had withdrawn from their contest 46 seconds and two punches into the fight. There were questions, then, as to whether Hamori would take part. Yet here she was, head up, proud, a confident smile upon her face. And booing all around her. But it is not as simple as that, though, is it? Hamori had exacerbated the situation too. She had posted unwelcome images online that portrayed Khelif as half-man, half-bull. She had also referred to Khelif on Instagram as “korcs”, which translates from Hungarian as “half-breed dog”. These posts didn’t last long online. We do not know how much she believed them or to what extent she was herself caught up in the narrative of the event: that she was the victim of an injustice, that she was entering an unfair competition and that Khelif was herself somehow responsible — the villain — in all this. The only truth is that they are both the victims, both suffering at the hands of the International Olympic Committee, which has failed to deliver an adequate policy on gender to this boxing competition. The fight itself was mildly interesting, but only because we were watching Hamori to see if her confidence and courage would endure. Her tactics were sound: to dance around Khelif as much as possible and to avoid closequarter scrapping. Nevertheless, she lost the first round on all five judges’ scorecards and the second went the same way. No one could disagree with the judges, but it was also impossible not to be impressed by the bravery and resilience she showed. “ She posted images portraying Khelif as half-man, half-bull This did not look like a scandalous mismatch. It was only in the last minute of the bout that it became clear that Hamori could no longer endure Khelif’s dominance and superior strength. Those, at least, were the circumstances of the “sport”. The emotions thereafter told a tale. The fighters hugged and showed a welcome mutual respect. Indeed, Khelif stood aside to allow Hamori to thank the crowd. But pretty soon, Khelif was overwhelmed by all that she had been through. An almighty horde of media — yes, that’s me too — crowded to get a glimpse of her and, suddenly transformed back from Olympic athlete to No1 Olympic controversy, she sobbed her way through interviews, her national flag around her neck. “I am a woman,” she said. And then, to the BBC: “I feel good. It’s the first Algerian woman boxing medal. I want to thank the Arabic world.” Now that she is in the semi-finals, she is assured of a medal because the two defeated semi-finalists both receive a bronze. Hamori was generous in defeat, so much so that you wondered to what extent her responses had been practised beforehand. “It was a very hard day for both of us,” she said. “But I want to say: it was a great fight. I wish good luck to Khelif in the future.” She also said that she was “so proud” of herself, which she had every right to be, and that she was “so happy”, and that this had been her “childhood dream”. Again, you wonder if this could really have been the kind of Olympics that she would ever have set her heart upon. This controversy has been cooking now since the start of the week and just when it was so desperately crying out for a grown-up who was not on a personal PR mission, it got, instead, Donald Trump (“I will keep men out of women’s sports”) and then the IOC president himself, Thomas Bach. Bach decided yesterday morning that what this controversy required was some clear thinking and — who knows — that might have been a reasonable stance were he able to say what he meant. In this hugely sensitive controversy, one of the most important distinctions is the difference between athletes who are transgender and those who have a difference of sexual development (DSD). In the current world of sporting politics, to get these muddled is as unfortunate as saying Putin when you mean Zelensky. Yet that is exactly what Bach managed. Mind-boggling, isn’t it? So Hamori returns to Hungary not knowing if she experienced a fair Olympic competition, and Khelif moves on to the semi-finals, where she will meet Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand, the next fighter to be on the other side of the ring and the debate. When this controversy initially broke, it seemed likely that a sensible course of action would be taken: either the withdrawing of Khelif from the competition, or the immediate testing to ascertain whether she is gender eligible or not. Neither has happened and the circus continues.
Mail on Sunday [3]
Trans civil servant works in ‘fetish gear’ The Mail on Sunday4 Aug 2024 A GOVERNMENT department is embroiled in a bizarre row about fetish gear following complaints from civil servants about a transgender colleague. Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions are objecting to the dress code of a fellow official which last week prompted Tory peer Baroness Jenkin to table a question about government ‘policy on civil servants wearing fetish clothing in the workplace’. Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, 58, a trans woman, has previously said that trans children’s demands for puberty blockers should take precedence over their ‘parents’ will’. Now Tweedale is facing fresh controversy after DWP staff said their colleague regularly comes to work in fishnet tights, low-cut black corsets, high heels and a gothic choker with a pentagram. One source said: ‘It’s very strange. If you worked in a bank you couldn’t wear that whether you’re a woman or a man.’ Article Name:Trans civil servant works in ‘fetish gear’ Publication:The Mail on Sunday Start Page:29 End Page:29
I AM A WOMAN! Controversial Algerian boxer hits back as she secures Olympic medal The Mail on Sunday4 Aug 2024Mike Keegan RINGSIDE AT THE NORTH PARIS ARENA DEFIANT: Imane Khelif after her victory yesterday GENDER row boxer Imane Khelif guaranteed herself an Olympic medal here in Paris before declaring: ‘I am a woman!’ The Algerian welterweight, one of two boxers at the centre of an Olympic storm, scored a unanimous points victory against Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori to secure her place in the semi-finals here. Khelif was banned from last year’s World Championships by the Russian-led International Boxing Association after they claimed she failed a gender test. But the Algerian has been cleared to fight in Paris by Olympic bosses. The 25-year-old’s first fight lasted just 46 seconds, when Italy’s Angela Carini quit in tears, saying she feared for her life. This time, the tears were Khelif’s after a dominant performance which saw her cheered on by hundreds of noisy supporters and later congratulated by her country’s president, who said she had ‘honoured Algeria, Algerian women and Algerian boxing’. As she headed to the dressing room, Khelif shouted in Arabic, with Algerian reporters translating that she had said: ‘I want to tell the entire world that I am a woman and I will remain a woman.’ She later expressed her thanks to the International Olympic Committee, who she said ‘spoke the truth’. She said: ‘Thanks to God this is the first women’s medal for boxing in Algeria. I can say to the Algerian people that I won a medal for Algeria and Arabs.’ Khelif will meet Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-final on Tuesday. Should she win, she will fight for gold on Friday. Even if she loses, she is guaranteed a bronze medal. In the build-up, Hamori had branded the fight unfair. However, after the bout, the Hungarian shared an embrace with Khelif and wished her luck for the future. DRAPED in an Algerian flag, drenched in sweat and fighting back tears, Imane Khelif turned to the press and shouted in Arabic: ‘I am a woman.’ The 25-year-old at the centre of the Olympics gender row had just dominated her Hungarian opponent to land a unanimous decision, along with a place in the semi-finals. It was last March when Khelif was kicked out of the World Championships in India for reportedly failing a gender test. At the time it was a decision that barely raised a headline but which has now ensured Khelif, and this ring at an innocuous North Paris exhibition centre, have turned into the epicentre of the sporting world. It is also a decision that requires further examination. Here, for three rounds at least, there was no uncertainty over who would be the victor. Khelif outboxed Anna Luca Hamori, who had claimed the fight was not fair in the build-up and who had reposted an image of a slight female boxer facing a horned beast under Olympic rings. From the opening bell, Khelif dictated the pace behind a rangy jab and a sharp right hand. On all five scorecards, all five rounds were hers. At the end she sank to her knees and pointedly scrawled her name on the blue canvas. She then rose, slowly, and blew kisses to all corners before bursting into tears. There are close to half a million Algerians in France. From the noise that greeted Khelif in and out of the makeshift arena, it sounded like many of them were here. Some will use this victory and the manner of it as further evidence that Khelif should not be here, that men should not be boxing against women. It is an argument that cannot be countered, but what can be called into question is the basis for that claim in this instance. Surprisingly little detail on why both Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin YuTing, who is also competing in Paris, were disqualified from the New Delhi tournament is in the public domain. There are, however, some facts. One is that the decision was made by boxing body the IBA, who ran the competition. Another is that the IBA’s president is a man called Umar Kremlev, an outspoken 41-year-old from Moscow who earlier this week posted two rants about the Games in which he claimed the opening ceremony was ‘pure sodomy’, described IOC boss Thomas Bach as ‘chief sodomite’ and said a ‘group of hyenas’ had tarnished the culture. Kremlev added that the IBA had excluded ‘male athletes who boxed like women’, claiming they had ‘changed gender’. He does not make the most reliable witness in this court of public opinion. Kremlev’s IBA has not been recognised by the IOC since 2019, when it was suspended over concerns around ethics, refereeing, judging, finance and governance. One of the key issues was a sponsorship deal with Russian state energy firm Gazprom and questions over the integrity of bouts. The IBA has been dumped by Britain, the US and others and last year lost the right to run the Games here. In short, it is not viewed as a beacon of fair play and yet its verdict is being regarded by many as gospel and strong enough ammunition to use in a culture war. Indeed, there are figures in boxing, without a dog in this particular fight, who are wondering if the world might be falling for another Russian-led misinformation campaign. They point to the fact that the decision to test Khelif and Yu-Ting was made after Khelif had just defeated Azalia Amineva, is from Russia. They also wonder if the timing of the story resurfacing just before the boxing started was a coincidence. If the aim was maximum disruption, then the mission has been accomplished. Answers are needed. What type of tests were taken and who carried them out? Was an independent third party present? What did the results show? Were they verified? Why were the boxers disqualified? Mail Sport put all of those to the IBA and did not receive a response, let alone an answer. Kremlev himself claimed the tests had shown both boxers had the male XY chromosome, but offered no concrete evidence. With the storm raging as the boxing in France opened, Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew in tears after just 46 seconds of her bout with Khelif, adding more fuel to an already raging fire. Never ones to miss a trick, the IBA swiftly offered her prize money. Australia’s Skye Nicholson, who turned pro after Tokyo, called Carini’s actions a ‘publicity stunt’. ‘They were born female,’ she said of Khelif and Yu-Ting, both of whom she has sparred with. ‘They were born with an XY chromosome, which is the male chromosome, but they were born with female bodies, they have the physical attributes of a female. These are not naturally born men who have decided to call themselves women or identify as women to fight women.’ Nicholson’s stance will be welcomed by Bach’s IOC, who have vowed that as soon as there is a consensus on a form of testing they will look to adopt it, but there appears to have been little attempt to move on since the removal of the IBA. Instead, we are repeatedly told that Khelif and Yu-Ting are eligible because it says female in their passports and that this is the key criteria. It is not good enough and neither are the explanations. The IOC has also argued that we should not want a return to the ‘archaic’ world of sex testing. However, a sex test was previously conducted in the form of a simple cheek swab. A survey of female athletes at the 1996 Games found 82 per cent wanted that test to continue, with 94 per cent saying it did not make them feel anxious. Yet it was dropped for Sydney. Why? There are also questions for the athletes themselves. Khelif made claims of victimisation by the IBA following the disqualification but subsequently withdrew an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the IBA say renders the decision legally binding. Yu-Ting did not appeal. Both could agree to a gender test and end the debate in minutes. Khelif now heads to Roland Garros. She is two wins from gold and is guaranteed a medal. This time she will hope she gets to keep it. Article Name:I AM A WOMAN! Publication:The Mail on Sunday Author:Mike Keegan RINGSIDE AT THE NORTH PARIS ARENA Start Page:87 End Page:87
I AM A WOMAN! Controversial Algerian boxer hits back as she secures Olympic medal The Mail on Sunday4 Aug 2024Mike Keegan RINGSIDE AT THE NORTH PARIS ARENA DEFIANT: Imane Khelif after her victory yesterday GENDER row boxer Imane Khelif guaranteed herself an Olympic medal here in Paris before declaring: ‘I am a woman!’ The Algerian welterweight, one of two boxers at the centre of an Olympic storm, scored a unanimous points victory against Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori to secure her place in the semi-finals here. Khelif was banned from last year’s World Championships by the Russian-led International Boxing Association after they claimed she failed a gender test. But the Algerian has been cleared to fight in Paris by Olympic bosses. The 25-year-old’s first fight lasted just 46 seconds, when Italy’s Angela Carini quit in tears, saying she feared for her life. This time, the tears were Khelif’s after a dominant performance which saw her cheered on by hundreds of noisy supporters and later congratulated by her country’s president, who said she had ‘honoured Algeria, Algerian women and Algerian boxing’. As she headed to the dressing room, Khelif shouted in Arabic, with Algerian reporters translating that she had said: ‘I want to tell the entire world that I am a woman and I will remain a woman.’ She later expressed her thanks to the International Olympic Committee, who she said ‘spoke the truth’. She said: ‘Thanks to God this is the first women’s medal for boxing in Algeria. I can say to the Algerian people that I won a medal for Algeria and Arabs.’ Khelif will meet Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-final on Tuesday. Should she win, she will fight for gold on Friday. Even if she loses, she is guaranteed a bronze medal. In the build-up, Hamori had branded the fight unfair. However, after the bout, the Hungarian shared an embrace with Khelif and wished her luck for the future. DRAPED in an Algerian flag, drenched in sweat and fighting back tears, Imane Khelif turned to the press and shouted in Arabic: ‘I am a woman.’ The 25-year-old at the centre of the Olympics gender row had just dominated her Hungarian opponent to land a unanimous decision, along with a place in the semi-finals. It was last March when Khelif was kicked out of the World Championships in India for reportedly failing a gender test. At the time it was a decision that barely raised a headline but which has now ensured Khelif, and this ring at an innocuous North Paris exhibition centre, have turned into the epicentre of the sporting world. It is also a decision that requires further examination. Here, for three rounds at least, there was no uncertainty over who would be the victor. Khelif outboxed Anna Luca Hamori, who had claimed the fight was not fair in the build-up and who had reposted an image of a slight female boxer facing a horned beast under Olympic rings. From the opening bell, Khelif dictated the pace behind a rangy jab and a sharp right hand. On all five scorecards, all five rounds were hers. At the end she sank to her knees and pointedly scrawled her name on the blue canvas. She then rose, slowly, and blew kisses to all corners before bursting into tears. There are close to half a million Algerians in France. From the noise that greeted Khelif in and out of the makeshift arena, it sounded like many of them were here. Some will use this victory and the manner of it as further evidence that Khelif should not be here, that men should not be boxing against women. It is an argument that cannot be countered, but what can be called into question is the basis for that claim in this instance. Surprisingly little detail on why both Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin YuTing, who is also competing in Paris, were disqualified from the New Delhi tournament is in the public domain. There are, however, some facts. One is that the decision was made by boxing body the IBA, who ran the competition. Another is that the IBA’s president is a man called Umar Kremlev, an outspoken 41-year-old from Moscow who earlier this week posted two rants about the Games in which he claimed the opening ceremony was ‘pure sodomy’, described IOC boss Thomas Bach as ‘chief sodomite’ and said a ‘group of hyenas’ had tarnished the culture. Kremlev added that the IBA had excluded ‘male athletes who boxed like women’, claiming they had ‘changed gender’. He does not make the most reliable witness in this court of public opinion. Kremlev’s IBA has not been recognised by the IOC since 2019, when it was suspended over concerns around ethics, refereeing, judging, finance and governance. One of the key issues was a sponsorship deal with Russian state energy firm Gazprom and questions over the integrity of bouts. The IBA has been dumped by Britain, the US and others and last year lost the right to run the Games here. In short, it is not viewed as a beacon of fair play and yet its verdict is being regarded by many as gospel and strong enough ammunition to use in a culture war. Indeed, there are figures in boxing, without a dog in this particular fight, who are wondering if the world might be falling for another Russian-led misinformation campaign. They point to the fact that the decision to test Khelif and Yu-Ting was made after Khelif had just defeated Azalia Amineva, is from Russia. They also wonder if the timing of the story resurfacing just before the boxing started was a coincidence. If the aim was maximum disruption, then the mission has been accomplished. Answers are needed. What type of tests were taken and who carried them out? Was an independent third party present? What did the results show? Were they verified? Why were the boxers disqualified? Mail Sport put all of those to the IBA and did not receive a response, let alone an answer. Kremlev himself claimed the tests had shown both boxers had the male XY chromosome, but offered no concrete evidence. With the storm raging as the boxing in France opened, Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew in tears after just 46 seconds of her bout with Khelif, adding more fuel to an already raging fire. Never ones to miss a trick, the IBA swiftly offered her prize money. Australia’s Skye Nicholson, who turned pro after Tokyo, called Carini’s actions a ‘publicity stunt’. ‘They were born female,’ she said of Khelif and Yu-Ting, both of whom she has sparred with. ‘They were born with an XY chromosome, which is the male chromosome, but they were born with female bodies, they have the physical attributes of a female. These are not naturally born men who have decided to call themselves women or identify as women to fight women.’ Nicholson’s stance will be welcomed by Bach’s IOC, who have vowed that as soon as there is a consensus on a form of testing they will look to adopt it, but there appears to have been little attempt to move on since the removal of the IBA. Instead, we are repeatedly told that Khelif and Yu-Ting are eligible because it says female in their passports and that this is the key criteria. It is not good enough and neither are the explanations. The IOC has also argued that we should not want a return to the ‘archaic’ world of sex testing. However, a sex test was previously conducted in the form of a simple cheek swab. A survey of female athletes at the 1996 Games found 82 per cent wanted that test to continue, with 94 per cent saying it did not make them feel anxious. Yet it was dropped for Sydney. Why? There are also questions for the athletes themselves. Khelif made claims of victimisation by the IBA following the disqualification but subsequently withdrew an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the IBA say renders the decision legally binding. Yu-Ting did not appeal. Both could agree to a gender test and end the debate in minutes. Khelif now heads to Roland Garros. She is two wins from gold and is guaranteed a medal. This time she will hope she gets to keep it. Article Name:I AM A WOMAN! Publication:The Mail on Sunday Author:Mike Keegan RINGSIDE AT THE NORTH PARIS ARENA Start Page:96 End Page:96
Sunday Telegraph [5]
The credibility of this Olympics is in peril thanks to boxing’s gender travesty The Sunday Telegraph4 Aug 2024 “I had to preserve myself. After the second [punch], I couldn’t breathe anymore. I never felt a punch like this.” So were the words of the Italian Olympic boxer Angela Carini on her withdrawal after 46 seconds from her now infamous bout with the Algerian Imane Khelif on Thursday in Paris. Khelif, along with fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics without controversy, but were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships last year for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria. The boxers’ testosterone levels exceeded the limit for the female category, while DNA tests also revealed that each contestant had male XY, not XX chromosomes, according to the International Boxing Association. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC), full to bursting with its “inclusiveness” agenda, takes a different view, one startlingly bereft of biological considerations. Thus we find ourselves at the present grisly pass, with athletes – and there have been more in the boxing since – raised female but with male chromosomes and testosterone levels – known as DSD, for “differences of sexual development” – eligible for women’s competitions in the Olympics. Male testosterone levels dramatically skew any strengthbased contest, but this seems less important to the IOC than its diversity agenda. “Obviously I am not going to comment on individuals,” weaselled the IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “That’s really invidious and unfair. But I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules. They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case.” Come again? What planet are these people on? It is obvious to almost everyone else that gender as stated on passports is a faulty, sloppy measure of biological sex in this day and age, especially for sport of such stakes as this. In fact, sex as stated on passports could soon mean literally nothing at all in countries – like ours – run by governments ever keener on making gender a matter of personal statement. Carini’s heart-rending words cannot be forgotten, though, and they merge with those of the tireless JK Rowling who, as usual, is taking no prisoners. “What will it take to end this insanity?” she posted. “A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?” Carini’s dangerous encounter with Khelif suggests this could well be what it takes. On Khelif ’s smile after Carini withdrew, Rowling went further. “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.” Not all will agree with calling Khelif a man. But Rowling’s fury is understandable. The wild injustice of misogyny pretending to be progress has dragged at women’s sport for the five or so years in which an extreme trans ideology has been in the ascendant. It has exhausted us all as much as it has demoralised and robbed female athletes of their pride and achievements. The rules set by sporting elites have meant that biologically male swimmers like Lia Thomas could compete in America’s National Collegiate Athletics Association; Thomas ended up winning, easily – simply robbing female swimmers of the chance. Trans cyclists were also included in championships before uproar reversed eligibility. And the last Olympics saw Laurel Hubbard, a trans female weightlifter, compete in the games for New Zealand. It was obscene. If the precise gendered condition of Khelif and Lin is complex, the problem that underlies this whole mess is crystal clear: the kings of sport, from the IOC to Fifa, are in their own sinister, self-serving world of woke flim-flammery. The trouble is that when the IOC, Fifa and the Premier League put their wrongheaded ideas into action, it has a profound impact, making something very much not fine appear to be the most decent, normal thing in the world. Should the 2022 World Cup – a huge boon for any country – have been held in Qatar, an autocracy where the rights of women and sexual minorities are in the Stone Age and terror kingpins are given luxurious shelter? Probably not, on moral grounds. But given that it was, perhaps its pusillanimous power-brokers should be less keen on appearing progressive in other areas. There was Gary Lineker commentating in Qatar, condemning its stance on LGBTQ rights while having a lovely old time. Lineker is keen on appearing virtuous but like the rest of them, ends up being awful: insistent on everyone taking the knee in misplaced BLM activist enthusiasm one day; condemning Israel’s response to October 7 with rabid determination another. I don’t imagine Lineker would set foot in Israel, which he deems genocidal – but Qatar? Well, if you insist. Then there’s Algeria’s Olympic ‘What will it take to end this insanity?’ wrote JK Rowling. ‘A female boxer killed?’ committee. Accusing critics of “targeting” Khelif unfairly, one would be forgiven for thinking the Islamic country is some kind of gender-fluid paradise, a place where extremely masculinepresenting woman-identified boxers with potentially intersex chromosomal make-ups are commonplace, rather than a fascinating exception in a regime where homosexuality and cross-dressing are punished with imprisonment, beatings, torture and vigilante executions. Sport at the level we are seeing in Paris is a glorious feat and spectacle. It’s just a shame, a tragedy even, that those tasked with protecting it seem most intent on destroying it. But that seems par for the course in our modern age. Article Name:The credibility of this Olympics is in peril thanks to boxing’s gender travesty Publication:The Sunday Telegraph Start Page:6 End Page:6
Khelif insists: I am a woman Algerian embroiled in gender row is guaranteed a medal Beaten Hammer has shared picture of opponent as beast By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer at the centre of the Olympic gender row, is guaranteed a medal after securing a place in tomorrow's women’s lightweight final. In a move certain to enrage her rivals, who acknowledge she was born a man, Khelif easily beat French Algerian Estelle Mossely. Mossely, a favourite to win the gold, left the ring in tears as the Algerian-born crowd cheered another victory for the controversial athlete. The growing unease over Khelif, who was automatically barred from the world championships in Tashkent after failing to pass International Boxing Association eligibility rules, is certain to intensify following this result. In Paris, Khelif, who did not field journalists' post-fight questions, will meet Mexico's Fatima Herrera for the gold. French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera called the Algerian's win "a nightmare for the sport". Team GB's Rosie Eccles, who faces Hammer in the middleweight final, said: "This is not the Olympics any of us wanted. The IOC need to get a grip." International Olympic Committee guidelines for Paris say trans women can compete if they have been on hormone therapy for two years. World Athletics and Fina have banned trans women from women's competition.
Khelif closes in on gold but the frenzy only intensifies No matter how the IOC tries to ignore that biology is all that matters, this is truly a flesh-and-blood controversy By Oliver Brown CHIEF SPORTS WRITER in Paris The media scrum was greater than for a Champions League final. All the top stories of the 1980s and 1990s, the allegations over pay-per-view television and the foaming-at-the-mouth media coverage of Diego Maradona, they all paled in comparison to the mix of fury and anticipation here in the Paris boxing venue. In the mixed zone, the area where boxers were interviewed at the 2024 Summer Olympics, journalists elbowed their way through a crowd of four photographers, two dozen camera crews and the father of a bronze medallist. They pushed through to get close to the figure of Imane Khelif, wearing an orange tracksuit and grinning from ear to ear. She did not engage with the reporters who clamoured for answers, but instead gave a brief wave before leaving, surrounded by officials. This was Khelif's moment and she was not going to be denied it. The furore over her participation had only intensified since the Games had started, and now it was inescapable. Outside the venue, public disputes increased over her apparent victory against Estelle Mossely, a French-Algerian favourite and a former world champion. Inside, the atmosphere was thick with controversy and incredulity, especially among the French broadcasters who cut to commercials whenever her bout was mentioned. The Algerian-born fighter was now the focus of Olympic drama. Reports that a picture of Khelif as a teenage boy, alongside a boxing poster, had surfaced on social media added to the chaos. Her opponents protested that Khelif had an unfair advantage. French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera called Khelif's win "a nightmare for the sport." Nevertheless, the 30-year-old Khelif had no intention of backing down. She acknowledged the crowd's cheers, and did not engage with the mounting criticism. She refused to be drawn on questions about her eligibility or biology, focusing only on her performance and the prospect of winning a gold medal. Her father, Hamid, spoke to the gathered journalists, insisting his daughter was born female and dismissing allegations to the contrary as lies. He pointed to her record, saying: "Imane is a little girl who loves sport. It is the focus of her life." Inside, the frenzied atmosphere showed no signs of abating. Fans speculated on social media about the implications for the final, with discussions spilling into forums and chatrooms about the perceived injustices of the situation. Hamid Khelif reiterated his belief in his daughter's integrity and talent. "Imane has never said anything negative about anyone," he said. "She only wants to box and win. That is all that matters to her." As the final approaches, attention on Khelif's story only grows. The boxing ring in Paris has become the epicentre of a debate that transcends sport, touching on issues of identity, fairness, and the nature of competition itself.

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