Gender and Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympics aimed for gender parity among athletes – 5,630 men and 5,416 women are competing. (Source: CNN)

But what’s grabbed attention is calls for a “gender eligibility test” after Angela Carini of Italy withdrew from a boxing match with Imane Khelif of Algeria in just 46 seconds. At the time of writing, Khelif went on to defeat Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary, ensuring that she will take home Algeria’s first Olympic boxing medal since 2000.

Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by the International Boxing Association, ostensibly because they did not meet eligibility criteria. The International Olympic Committe had stripped the IBA of its status as boxing’s governing body last year due to governance issues. It took charge of the boxing competition at the Paris Olympics and cleared Khelif and Yu-ting to compete.

Many have implied on social media that the Khelif-Carini bout was an unfair one and called for gender eligibility tests. These tests can however be arbitrary and used to unfairly scrutinise women. Experts say that several factors determine sex – chromosomes, hormones, internal and external genitalia, secondary sex characteristics, etc. Sports bodies need to determine what tests they will require and which factors they will take into account to determine eligibility.

According to Khelif’s passport, she was assigned female at birth. That is the IOC’s threshold for eligibility.

The IOC has tried to make this a gender equal Olympics, encouraging countries to have both male and female flag bearers at the opening ceremony, scheduling women’s events during peak viewing times, urging the media to ensure “gender equal and fair portrayal of athletes” and avoid objectification of female athletes, providing a nursery for children at the Olympics village and allowing breast-feeding athletes to stay their infants at hotels near the Olympic village.