If you’ve been following the Olympics, you’d be hard pressed to have missed the travesty that’s unfolded in women’s boxing.
In the absence of any sex screening for women’s events, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed two boxers who reportedly have XY male chromosomes to compete in the women’s competition. Both boxers have now won gold medals in their respective categories.
This is not only patently unfair, it is incredibly dangerous in a contact sport like boxing.
While the IOC and others continue to obfuscate the issue, claiming the two boxers are women because they “have a passport as a woman”, the International Boxing Association has confirmed that they were disqualified from the world championships last year after a “series of DNA-tests...proved they had XY chromosomes”.
From the information available, it appears the two boxers have 'differences of sexual development' (DSDs), meaning they may have been raised female and not exhibited male traits until they began to go through male puberty.
While we can be sensitive to the hardships faced by those with DSDs, this does not excuse putting women’s safety – and their very lives – at risk.
And make no mistake – while the two boxers may not be ‘transgender’ as some people have claimed, it is the IOC’s unapologetic adherence to gender ideology and its commitment to inclusion over safety and fairness that has landed us in this mess in the first place.
Women’s Forum Australia has consistently raised awareness about this issue online and in the media over the past couple of weeks, including on Sky (here, here and here), 3AW, 7News and The Epoch Times.
We explained that the reason we even have single-sex sport in the first place is to preserve fairness and safety for female athletes, and that the IOC’s current rules – which effectively allow any male to self-identify into the female sporting category – are failing female athletes.
In this case, they have also failed the two boxers in question by putting them in a position where they would be subject to such intense public scrutiny.
For a more detailed explanation of the biological considerations involved and the surrounding context, we highly recommend these articles by evolutionary biologist Colin Wright, law professor Doriane Coleman, and sport performance coach Linda Blade, as well as these podcast episodes (here and here) by sports scientist Ross Tucker, and this interview with developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton. Reduxx, who broke the story, also has several informative articles on the issue.
We will continue to stand up for women and girls in sport and to advocate protections for women’s sporting events that previous generations worked so hard to establish. It has been particularly encouraging to see some of the female boxers themselves bravely protesting the unfairness in this instance.
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
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