Elon University’s GLC assistant director analyzes Olympic women’s boxing controversy

One of the biggest things to come out of the 2024 Paris Olympics was the division and social media backlash around Algerian and Taiwanese boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting — whose genders were questioned on an international stage. 

Khelif competed in the Paris Games in the 145 pound group, and won a gold medal Aug. 9. Yu-Ting is in the 126 pound group and also won a gold medal Aug. 10.

Despite their success, controversy has embroiled them during the Olympics. After Khelif defeated Italian boxer Angela Carini in 46 seconds early into the Games, a social media outburst arose questioning if Khelif and Yu-Ting were eligible to participate in women’s sports as biological women.

Despite both being born as women and always having identified themselves as women, there are some who question their gender and the fairness of them competing. They were both disqualified from the 2023 Women’s Boxing World Championships after they failed the International Boxing Association’s gender eligibility tests. These tests are unspecified and aren’t proven to be true, according to AP News. The International Olympic Committee banned the IBA due to its connections with Russia.

The IOC took over the administration of Olympic boxing events from the IBA in 2019 and released guidelines in 2021 on the matter of transgender and intersex athletes in the Olympics, in which they declared that athletes will no longer be required to undergo “medically unnecessary” hormone treatments to compete in the Olympics. Because of this, they allowed Kherif and Yu-Ting to compete in the Paris Games.

Associate Director of the Gender and LGBTQIA Center at Elon University Becca Bishopric Patterson said she believes organizations like the IOC need to play a key role in preserving the rights of LGBTQ+ athletes.

“We need to step up and say, ‘We're not going to allow our fellow humans to be treated like this,”’ Bishopric Patterson said. “That's where I think the oversight committees really have a huge part to play.”

Bishopric Patterson said the social media outburst around this issue showcases how transphobia can easily spread online.

“People can feel like they have more anonymity on social media because they don't have to face someone face to face,” Bishopric Patterson said. “So, they're more likely to be hateful and transphobic because it's a lot easier to be mean and hateful when you don't have a face in front of you. And so when people can easily dehumanize others, they're more likely to be hateful.”

Bishopric Patterson also said this controversy comes down to the issue of intersex, which is an identity that describes someone, should they claim this identity, where one or more of their five sex characteristics varies from what is usually categorized as female or male. These five characteristics are chromosomes, hormones, gonads, secondary sex characteristics and genitals. 

“It's all around how our genetic code is expressed in our bodies,” Bishopric Patterson said. “So, anytime that one of those five characteristics differs from our standards of male and female, someone could qualify as intersex if they choose to claim the identity.

It is still unclear if Khelif or Yu-Ting meet the qualifications of being intersex as a result of the murky results of the IBA’s tests. Khelif has never identified as intersex, according to GLAAD.

Bishopric Patterson said the controversy stems from people not wanting to accept others that are different from them, and from the lack of awareness surrounding intersex, which is often the least known of the LGBTQ+ identities. 

“Gender and sex are more complex than the average person realizes and I think we get stuck when people lean into the fear of the unknown and of thinking ‘Oh, well, I've never interacted with someone that holds this identity,’” Bishopric Patterson said. “It challenges their worldview to think about more complexity in that there's more identities than just men and women, but diversity is always a strength and hopefully people will be able to see that instead of jumping on bandwagons of hate.”

As of Aug. 11, Khelif filed a legal complaint in France for online harassment, and Yu-Ting is also considering legal action. Bishopric Patterson said she hopes this situation will bring awareness to the complexity of gender and bring about change in people’s viewpoints. 

“Maybe some people can take it as learning, and think ‘Oh, gender is more than a binary, so maybe there is some good in it too,’” Bishopric Patterson.