An Olympic women’s boxing match — and misinformation about an athlete involved — is now being used by conservatives to promote their anti-trans agenda.
Thursday, Algerian boxer Imane Khelief faced off against Italian boxer Angela Carini, winning in 46 seconds after Carini suddenly withdrew from the fight. After the match, Carini broke down in tears and refused to shake Khalif’s hand, telling reporters that he withdrew due to the intensity of his opponent’s initial punches. “I finished the match because after the second hit,” Carini said, “I felt a lot of pain in my nose.”
This response has since spawned the experiment of Khilaif, who was assigned female at birth and identified as a woman. False claims that he is a trans person or that he is a man pretending to be a woman spread quickly thanks to reports of him Disqualified from a 2023 International Boxing Association event And Revival of comments The president of the organization advised him to drop him because he failed the hormone test.
Misrepresentations about her identity were encouraged by prominent anti-trans figures choice harry potter Author JK Rowling, As well as politicians like the US The Republican vice presidential nominee is JD Vance and conservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Their speech stirred a A storm of rage on the right Although Khalif is a cisgender woman.
As Alex Abad-Santos of Vox explains, there isn’t Transgender athletes Those competing in the Olympics this year are outside the sex assigned to them at birth, although IOC rules do not bar their inclusion as long as they meet certain eligibility criteria. “There has been some confusion that somehow a man is fighting a woman,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams told reporters. “You have to ask yourself, are these athletes women? The answer is yes.”
2024 Olympic boxing match between Imane Khelief and Angela Carini, explained
During their match this week, Carini and Khelief competed against each other in their respective first bouts of these Olympics. Olympic boxing groups competitors by weight class and operates in a knockout fashion, meaning the winner of a match advances and the loser is eliminated. Both had previously competed in Tokyo, where Carini was eliminated in his first bout and Khalif in his second during those Olympics.
The two fighters began trading rounds; After Carini paused the match to adjust his headgear, Khalif went on the offensive, landing a punch to his opponent’s face. Instead of continuing, Carini, pulling his nose, abandoned the competition altogether. This is unusual for a boxing match, which often includes three rounds of fighting.
As the referee prepared to call the match, Carini told his team, “It’s not fair.” Carini was then seen dropping to his knees and rejecting any attempt at a handshake or other customary sporting gesture from Khalaf.
The match may have gone unnoticed except for the ensuing controversies fueled by events that took place more than a year before its commencement.
In 2023, Kehliff and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting hoped to compete in the Boxing World Championships held by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in New Delhi, India. Kehliff and Lynn were disqualified by the IBA, and Press report recommended Because they failed some kind of test and the testosterone level increased. The IBA president told a Russian outlet At the time both Khelief and Lin had “XY chromosomes” – a chromosomal composition normally found in males assigned at birth.
Exactly why this statement is unclear. The IBA did not release the documentation at the time or reveal what tests were conducted. Questions were also raised because the organization, headed by Russian official Umar Kremlev, did not disqualify Khalif until he had already defeated a Russian boxer.
In recent days, The IBA released a statement Claims that in 2023, Khelief and Lin “did not perform a testosterone test but were subject to a separate and accredited test, through which specifics will remain confidential.” The statement also said the test “definitely indicates that both athletes … have a competitive advantage over other female competitors.” Both Khalif and Lin also competed in the 2022 World Championships, which were also organized by the IBA a year earlier.
The IBA’s 2023 decision was widely criticized by the IOC, which deemed it “arbitrary” and not transparent. Both athletes competed in the 2021 Olympics without any problems. During that time, neither medaled and both lost to multiple female opponents. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the IOC has declared the IBA an unreliable steward of global boxing: Officials kicked the team out of control at the Olympic level Due to concerns over its financial dealings, leadership and match-fixing allegations.
The lack of clarity about what happened in 2023 has helped spread mis- and confusion about the caliphate. The IOC, however, clarified that Khalaf and Lin qualified to compete based on its rules.
They do not include gender testing, which The IOC was abandoned in 2000 And which has been verified to work for a long time Questionable and flawed science. The committee still disqualifies some athletes who have sexual development differences (DSD), “a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs,” Per Reuters. When it comes to DSD, IOC rules use factors such as eligibility and fairness to determine who can compete.
Beyond the question of sexuality, there are racial dynamics in the perception of this match. Female athletes of color — especially those of African and African American descent — have long been accused of being masculinized when they beat white women in competition. This happened most notably with the tennis phenom Serena Williams and track star Caster SemenyaBoth of those tropes endure that Casting black women as more masculine and threatening.
After turning his attention to this week’s match, Carini said he wanted to apologize to Khelief: “If the IOC says he can fight, I respect that decision.”
Other boxers have expressed that they are not concerned about competing against Khalif. “I don’t care about press stories and social media,” said Ana Luca Hamory, a Hungarian boxer who will next compete against Khelief. Lin’s first match went as planned — Like Khalif, he won.
The attention is being used to advance the agenda of conservatives
The events of Khalifa’s Olympic journey did not get in the way of the false narrative that exploded in the wake of his victory. His victory proved to be an opportunity to score rhetorical and political points for transphobic views.
Rowling and other prominent anti-trans figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk were quick to spread the lie and point to the boxing match as an example of why they believe it’s important to support full gender binaries. “We object because we saw a man punching a woman,” Rowling wrote in a post on X.
US conservatives who misrepresented and questioned Khalif’s gender identity used anti-trans rhetoric as a weapon in the past to activate their voter base. Vance was mistakenly quick to link “Here’s Kamala Harris’ idea of gender leadership: a woman being pushed in a boxing match by an older man,” Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X in a no-nonsense post aimed at international boxing matches.
Former President Donald Trump similarly wrote on Truth Social that he would “keep men out of the women’s game.”
As Vox’s Nicole Naria and Fabiola Sinius explain, this kind of rhetoric from GOP leaders has been linked to an explosion of anti-trans laws in states across the country focused on bathroom access, women’s sports and gender-affirming care for minors. . Collectively, these bills attempt to frame trans people as a threat and instill fear among GOP voters.
Women’s sports is one arena where the GOP has turned to this messaging because they see it as activating religious Republicans, including evangelical voters, and potentially Resonates with more moderate women, too.
“Trans issues in particular challenge … the biblical concept of gender,” Sophie Bjork-James, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt University who studies the religious right, previously told Vox. “Evangelicals believe that men and women have very different qualities that are inherent in us. I think there’s a huge interest in maintaining a gender binary because it really provides a foundation for their theology and their daily lives.”
Republican state legislatures, including Tennessee and Texas, have successfully passed bills that restrict athletes from participating in sports based on their sex assigned at birth. Attacks on the caliphate are just the latest manifestation of such ideas.
