A.G. Gancarski
Culture wars are part of the Paris Olympiad this year, and that unsurprisingly includes a controversial boxing match.
In the wake of Italy’s Angela Carini forfeiting her fight against Algerian Imane Khelif after suffering what seemed like a broken nose in the fight’s earliest moments, some of Florida’s most prominent Republicans are railing against the inclusion of the North African pugilist who has been banned from previous events for having too much testosterone in her body.
“This is what (Joe) Biden & (Kamala) Harris want for America — a dangerous place where the lives and dreams of our daughters and granddaughters are crushed because Democrats allow biological men to compete in women’s sports — and, in this case, literally beat them down. This is the point of the Biden-Harris Title IX change that just took effect & I’m fighting like hell to reverse it,” said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan suddenly have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris after years of amateur competition. Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.
Lin begins her Paris run Friday.
“Biden-Harris admin is even trying to strip $$ for school lunches for poor kids from schools who don’t embrace gender ideology,” Ron DeSantis said on social media. “Biden-Harris elevate the ‘right’ of a male athlete to compete against women over the rights of women athletes to compete with fairness and integrity.”
The International Boxing Association (IBA) issued a statement Wednesday in which it claimed Khelif and Lin did not have a “testosterone examination” last year but were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential,” refusing to explain it.
The IBA, however, has been banned from the past two Olympics because of years of governance problems, a lack of financial transparency and many perceived instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.
“As a former collegiate swimmer, I know firsthand that we must protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports,” added Nick Primrose, a candidate for the Florida House. “We can’t allow men to compete against women and undermine their hard work. The International Olympic Committee must take immediate action.”
The IOC has defended its inclusion of Khelif, saying “all athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations,” as reported by The Associated Press.
Sky News notes that despite Khelif making the Olympic cut, she has been excluded before from competitions, including a disqualification at the International Boxing Association’s competition in India last year for failing to meet “eligibility criteria.”
Despite these historic issues, Khelif does not identify as transgender.
Carini isn’t taking a political position, meanwhile, saying that if “an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”
___
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
16 comments
BradDEI
August 1, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Cluch the pearls and tighten the sphincter. OH, Republicans’ sphincters are gaping like their mouths! JD Vanch loves sofas! Let’s go Heritage Furniture!
MH/Duuuval
August 1, 2024 at 1:07 pm
“Biden-Harris admin is even trying to strip $$ for school lunches for poor kids from schools who don’t embrace gender ideology,” says Ron DeSantis who kept Florida kids from extra federal money for food purchases this summer. The Decider decided our kids are already getting enough to eat — which is how it may look from Ozempicland.
ScienceBLVR
August 1, 2024 at 2:31 pm
Uh.. Biden and Harris are on the Olympic Committee that decides who participates? Perhaps there should be some Olympic events, Marco, Ronnie, and Ricky could participate in for USA..The BullS?!t Vault, The Lying Triathlon, Deflection Diving, Hyperbole Handball, Feckless Football, the list goes on. Gold medal material in all events
MH/Duuuval
August 1, 2024 at 2:45 pm
Fool’s gold would be the MAGA metal for participation.
Just saying
August 1, 2024 at 6:42 pm
My 8 year old: “that’s a guy. Why are people so confused?” Hm.
cassandra was right
August 5, 2024 at 12:59 pm
What has your child said about Jazz Jennings and Laverne Cox?
(Honestly curious, not a troll!)
Phil Morton
August 2, 2024 at 8:20 am
Female gender assigned at birth. All the working female parts. Isn’t that how Republicans identify gender? This is just too weird.
LexT
August 2, 2024 at 10:49 am
This is the insanity of the Left. Five minutes ago they were all for Women’s Rights, now they can’t define a woman. Women were supposed to have a physically equal space to compete with other women. Now we have biological men knocking out women. Please try to embrace logic.
MH/Duuuval
August 2, 2024 at 8:17 pm
Biological men have been knocking out women from the beginnings of time.
Regardless, the boxers don’t make the rules. Kudos to the Italian fighter who quit as boxing has produced many serious brain injuries.
cassandra was right
August 5, 2024 at 2:00 pm
“….the Left….can’t define a woman”
What are you talking about? She meets the Republican definition of a woman! She is a woman. Why is it that Project 2025 Trump misogynists are attacking women—-again? You don’t have a right to control how a woman dresses or behaves, how she thinks, or what she does with her body. You may be headed to the 1950’s (or maybe the 1250’s?), but you’re not dragging us along with you. We won’t go back!
No More MAGAts
August 3, 2024 at 5:08 pm
You people that follow these idiotic MAGA morons need to wake up! This is another example where natural born biological women are under attack by republican and Christian hate groups. What’s next genital inspections?
For the love, stop this gender attacking and let people be people. THIS IS A WOMAN AND HAS NATURAL WOMAN PARTS! Idiots
Yrral
August 4, 2024 at 7:00 am
If she was born with female reproductive organ,I thought Republican would be satisfied with her gender, worry about Hurricane Debby knock out blow
Tjb
August 7, 2024 at 10:10 am
There is no actual evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes. The IBA didn’t specify what test they used and have kept any proof of Khelif’s gender confidential perhaps we should check trumps xy chromosome, he identifies as a male but with his makeup and hair style, perhaps he is a women in drag.
Yrral
August 7, 2024 at 10:37 am
Kamala will deliver the knockout blow to MAGA in November
Yrral
August 9, 2024 at 12:06 pm
I think this woman should file a lawsuit against anybody that question her gender, starting with Fox News ,who payed 760 million for Trump lies
Jojo
August 10, 2024 at 7:53 am
Will these people never stop? The politicians that spew these lies know their acolytes are too lazy or stupid to actually find out what the truth is.
I’ve never liked Elon musk and I certainly will never read another JK Rowling novel, both idiots who have perpetuated these lies
Comments are closed.