The concept of gender binary is deeply ingrained in our understanding of life. Yet, the complexity of sexual identification can often lead to unexpected discoveries, uncertainties, and severe emotional distress for individuals.

It’s fascinating to consider human beings as a creation, where the old universal rule on sexual assignment has been challenged and has evolved over the years.

I get the sense that God has a cheeky side — He allowed this to happen and wants to challenge His creations to see how they would solve it peacefully without His help.

The 2024 Paris Olympics will likely be remembered for the controversies related to gender issues. Those controversies include the highly charged opening ceremony that ridiculed a religious belief and a boxing event that challenged traditional gender roles.

Imane Khelif is an Algerian boxer who gained attention for advancing in the women’s boxing division. She won the fight against Italian boxer Angela Carini in just 46 seconds of the opening round, reducing Carini to tears. The Italian abandoned the fight, saying it was the first time she felt she had been struck by a “man.”

Khelif then advanced to the bronze medal after defeating Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the women’s division. It was a pyrrhic victory considering the emotional cost in the form of hateful comments, threats, and derogatory remarks she is facing online.

In the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Khelif competed in women’s boxing under the Algerian flag and lost. However, she is now facing allegations of “cheating” related to her gender for winning in the Paris Olympics. Understandably, a humane society does not condone violence against women, more so in close contact sports.

Would her gender be questioned if she had lost again?

Based on reports from the Olympics, Khelif has a Difference in Sexual Development (DSD), an abnormality in anatomic sexual development caused by the failure of the sex glands to develop.

The rare disorder is called “Swyer syndrome,” a DSD that causes females to have “XY” chromosomes, typically consistent with males, instead of the usual XX chromosomes assigned to females. Of course, being born this way was not Khelif’s fault. Still, as a result, she has developed a higher muscle mass consistent with masculine attributes, giving her an undue advantage in mismatched competitions in women’s events. Understanding this biological aspect could be as complex as understanding rocket science.

Against nonstop online abuse from angry Olympics spectators, who could be at fault here? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is standing by its rules and has affirmed that Khelif “was born female, lived as a female, and possessed a female passport.” This stance has significant implications for the future of gender eligibility in sports.

Interestingly, Khelif was one of two athletes disqualified from last year’s world championships in New Delhi, the other being Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, after they failed to meet the gender eligibility criteria. The International Boxing Association (IBA) guidelines define a woman as an individual with XX chromosomes when determining competing eligibility.

Lin, previously found to have XY chromosomes and disqualified by the IBA, beat Svetlana Staneva in the Paris Olympics and is now assured of a medal.

Lin did not challenge the IBA disqualification before the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS), but Khelif initially did, only to withdraw it later.

Are the two boxers in question male or female? I’m undecided, so I want to see brilliant medical experts rack their brains in this debate to enlighten me.

Be that as it may, I believe the IOC urgently needs to update its rules for gender assignment to ensure politically correct guidelines for participating countries in the Olympics. This can be achieved by relying on objective, independent tests rather than self-identification by individuals — a crucial step in the evolution of sports.

By ensuring that countries and athletes are well-informed about opponents with rare medical conditions and that the guidelines are correctly followed, the IOC can avoid another debacle in the next Olympics, a hopeful prospect for the future of sports.

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