WHETHER ATHLETES ARE WOMEN OR MEN OR TRANSGENDER CAN’T BE RESOLVED YET

When the IOC president is corrected by publicists for a mistake, it’s clear the Olympic movement has no idea — and maybe no interest — in determining eligibility while two boxers are bullied online

     If a man is competing as a woman, or in a transgender experience, how would the Olympics know without conducting a strip search? And even then, what? Never mind the impossibility of uniting a divided planet. Thomas Bach, who perceives his public tact as ideal if not perfect, made a bleak mistake when trying to address the gender issues of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting.

     The president of the International Olympic Committee said the female boxers don’t have “differences in sexual development.” Bach didn’t do his proper homework, facing an immediate correction from his publicists, who wanted the boss to say they were not transgender. When he can’t get it right, try settling with IOC spokesman Mark Adams, who said, the savagery is “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.”

     He referred to a decision that has turned Paris into personal chaos for Khelif and Lin, who could win gold medals at the Roland Garros tennis facility. The International Boxing Association removed both fighters from the 2023 world championships, which was enough to turn them into universally hated figures on social media. The boxing world has no firm hold on life, so the IBA removed the two based on hearsay.

     “This is not a transgender case,” Adams said. “Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman.”

     Or, this is a powerful committee that wants no part of gender eligibility in the middle of a successful Games. “A politically motivated culture war,” Bach said. “We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have passports as women, and who’ve competed for many years as women. This is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman. What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman. And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific based new definition of who is a woman and how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman, cannot be considered a woman?”

     Passports do not define men, women, transgender. The IBA doesn’t, either. So how much farther will this havoc continue when Donald Trump and J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter writer, say Khelif is a man or transgender? The story is taking over the Olympics, and if Khelif wins for Algeria and Lin for Chinese Taipei, the next four years will be dominated by discussion and, we pray, genetic proficiency. Said Adams: “I need hardly say if we start acting on suspicions against every athlete of whatever, then we go down a very bad route. Those tests are not legitimate tests. The tests themselves, the process of the tests, the ad hoc nature of the tests are not legitimate. The whole process is flawed, from the conception of the test, to how the test was shared with us, to how the tests have become public.”

     So the IOC lets them ramble on, even after Khelif battered Italy’s Angela Carini with a punching storm. After 46 seconds, Carini sobbed on her knees and didn’t shake the winner’s hand. “I have never felt a punch like this,” she said. “I felt a strong pain in the nose. Regardless of the person in front of me, which doesn’t interest me — regardless of the row — I said enough.” Later, Carini apologized for her words, but the vitriol was rising. The IBA sent a letter to the IOC in June, demanding the Olympic abolition of Khelif and Lin. The brawl is brutal.

     “I’m not going to discuss the individual intimate details of athletes, in public, which I think is pretty disgraceful for those who’ve leaked that material,” Adams said. “Frankly, to be put in that position must be awful. On top of all of the social media harassment that these athletes have had.”

     Khelif spoke Sunday and said the bullying “harms human dignity.” She praised Bach and the IOC, telling a video partner of the Associated Press: “I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects. It can destroy people, it can kill people's thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”

     She is 25 and speaks to her family on the phone. “I hope that they weren't affected deeply," Khelif said. “They are worried about me. God willing, this crisis will culminate in a gold medal, and that would be the best response. I know the Olympic committee has done me justice, and I am happy with this remedy because it shows the truth.”

     Does she listen to the bullies? “I don't care about anyone's opinion,” she said. “I came here for a medal, and to compete for a medal. I will certainly be competing to improve (and) be better, and God willing, I will improve, like every other athlete. Honestly, I don't follow social media. There is a mental health team that doesn't let us follow social media, especially in the Olympic Games.”

     Her father, Omar Khalif, appeared in a video by Sky News. “My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl,” he said. “She’s a strong girl. I raised her to be hardworking and brave.”

     Lin also is 25. According to city council member Cho Kuan-ting in New Taipei, who spoke to the Taipei Times: Lin is “registered as a female on her birth certificate. The test result from last year was not even about chromosomes. It took her years of hard work to get to where she is today. She has proven herself to be the pride of Taiwan.”

     A Bulgarian coach, Borislav Georgiev, said Lin is a dirty fighter. “You could see that the representative of Taiwan did not want to fight. She was playing dirty as hell,” he said. “In general, I am indignant at the funfair that is taking place. They have decided to make them champions and that's it. I hope there are reasonable and honest people who will watch the game and support women's sports.”

     Women are examined for testosterone levels at the Olympics. But what do the results mean? “Many women can have testosterone which will be called ‘male levels’ and still be women and still compete as women. This idea that you do one test for testosterone and that sorts everything out? Not the case I'm afraid,” said Adams, who bemoaned “a lot of misinformation on social media particularly, which is damaging.”

     It’s hard to believe, in an Olympics with dramatic performances, that people are absorbed in thoughts of men and women and transgender. The IBA president said Khelif and Lin don’t have X and Y chromosomes but have “XY chromosomes.”

     I’ve enjoyed the Olympics. I will try to watch the women fight for medals. But the opinions are massive, and when Bach speaks again on the topic, I will pass. When he doesn’t know, the IOC doesn’t know.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.