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We’ve Got Eagles Players and Wives Chiming in on the Olympic Boxer Controversy

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

Josh Peter at USA Today:

Algeria’s Imane Khelif, one of two female Olympic boxers disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing gender eligibility tests, entered the ring Thursday at the Paris Games.

Her bout ended in abrupt and bizarre fashion.

Khelif prevailed when Italy’s Angela Carini stopped fighting after 46 seconds.

Carini was punched in the nose and shortly afterward said she didn’t want to fight anymore, according to Italian coach Emanuele Renzini.

The internet is going crazy over this one. Nothing like a classic “biological male or biological female” argument to get the juices flowing on a Thursday.

Khelif was one of two competitors to medal in the 2023 world championships, but was later stripped because of a failed gender eligibility test. On Wednesday, the International Boxing Association explained that in a statement regarding Khelif’s Olympics eligibility:

On 24 March 2023, IBA disqualified athletes Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi 2023. This disqualification was a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations. This decision, made after a meticulous review, was extremely important and necessary to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition.

Point to note, the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential. This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.

…

While IBA remains committed to ensuring competitive fairness in all of our events, we express concern over the inconsistent application of eligibility criteria by other sporting organizations, including those overseeing the Olympic Games.

Saquon Barkley and Jennifer Slay, Big Play’s wife, both came out in support of Carini:

Now the question of relevance is if Khelif is actually a woman or a man.

From what’s been reported, she is not transgender and has always identified as a woman. That checks out considering that Muslim Algeria is highly unlikely to ride with a trans athlete. I’ve never been, but feel confident making that assumption. There are articles out there saying she possesses XY male chromosomes and not XX female chromosomes, which are sourced to past quotes from the IBF President:

At the time of their disqualifications, the president of the International Boxing Association, which governs the World Boxing Championships, alleged that the boxers’ chromosome tests came back as XY (women typically have two X chromosomes, while men typically have an X and a Y chromosome).

“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women,” the association’s president, Umar Kremlev, told Russia’s Tass news agency at the time. “According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”

It’s a little confusing, since the recent IBF statement talks about “confidential” examinations and doesn’t go into detail, while the President is on the record talking about the chromosomes. He’s also Russian, and as you know, everything the Russians say is 100% trustworthy. And of course, each governing body sets its own criteria, so the IOC was satisfied with her eligibility and the IBF was not.

EDIT – Think it’s worth adding this in here, there’s some reporting that Khelif is a DSD athlete. DSD stands for “differences in sex development.” It’s defined by Britain’s NHS as “a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs, including genitals.” –

EDIT 2 – Here’s a four-page statement from the IOC:

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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