The strange tale of Imane Khelif
By: Author Kevin Drum (Kevin Drum)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Bottom right, Imane Khelif as a young girl.
US conservatives are in a remarkable lather over the results of a women's boxing match between an Algerian and an Italian. The Algerian is Imane Khelif, a journeyman welterweight with a lifetime record of 38-9, who suddenly might or might not be 100% female depending on who you listen to. Here's what happened.
Khelif was born and raised as a girl. She is not trans. No one argues about this.
On March 24, 2023, after reaching the finals of the IBA World Championships in New Delhi, Khelif was disqualified along with another boxer. The next day, the president of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, said: "Based on the results of DNA tests...it was proven that they have XY chromosomes." No testosterone testing was done at the time, but more recently Kremlev said "There will be no athletes with high levels of testosterone competing in women's boxing championships." Nobody knows quite what this means.
According to IBA board minutes, both boxers had also tested male at the previous year's championships in Istanbul: "[George] Yerolimpos confirmed that IBA has the results from two independent laboratories in two different countries at its disposal, both of which indicate that the athletes do not meet one of the eligibility criteria to continue competing at the Championships."
Shortly afterward, Khelif filed an appeal but later dropped it. That made the IBA's decision legally binding. And since the International Olympic Committee has no gender rules of its own, deferring instead to each sport's governing body, that was that. Khelif wouldn't be able to compete at the Olympics.
Except for one thing: Thanks to a series of bribery and officiating scandals, the IOC broke off ties with the IBA in 2023. This meant that qualification for the Olympics defaulted to IOC rules, and there aren't any. They declared that both Khelif and the other boxer were eligible since they had no reason of their own to disqualify them.
So what's the deal? No one knows for sure. The IBA has been very cagey about what test they administered and has refused to clarify things. Nor have they explained why Khelif was allowed to compete in the first place if she had supposedly failed a test the year before.
Bottom line: The IBA says something is amiss, but it's too corrupt to be trusted and is refusing to provide any testing details. Plus Kremlev is sort of a known bigot who tweeted a couple of days ago that the Olympic Games are "outright sodomy." On the other hand, Khelif had the opportunity to appeal and decided not to. There are lots of possible reasons for this, but obviously one of them is that she knows she'd lose.
In any case, nobody seems to care very much about this except for Kremlev and Republicans in the US. The other boxers have just shrugged about it. It's not clear if we'll ever know more.
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JD Vance made a comment yesterday to the effect of 'Kamala Harris wants to let men beat up women in a boxing ring'.
JD Vance claims ‘weird’ Kamala Harris will allow ‘biological males’ to beat up women in boxing
It still continues elsewhere that this is a man biologically and instead of admitting they're wrong, they dig their heels in deeper.
'A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on'
That seems to be the maga thing - even when the truth is known - they dig in deeper - or 'what about' - deflect to non-issues.
'Could of fooled most of us'
So this person actually turned out to be a woman. Could of fooled most of us.
But, what about all these weirdo men, who have dicks and balls and prostates, who have "identified" as women, taking unfair advantage of idiotic rules to intrude into biological women's spaces, locker rooms, and competitions?
Many women and girls have already been injured by these emotionally screwed up sissies.
… what about …
Enough said.
Projection, deflection, denial and delusion
Well, what about those fake women? Got an opinion....support them or not?
Why the obsession? Where how and why have these things allegedly occurred?
I guess you forgot about William (Lia) Thomas. I know his name hasn't been mentioned lately but it hasn't been that long.
One of one of my nephews wife is a Cook County Sheriff's Deputy, and has been for a long time (20 years or so) . I have seen her at family parties talking about beating bad guys up. In a word she is a self described bad ass, and I dont think cops will describe themselves that way unless there is some truth to it.
There have always been a subset of women who like to fight. It is up to the Olympics to decide if this boxer meets their criteria , not armchair doctors getting their information from social media.
I take Karate twice a week. There are a couple of women in my dojo and we spar a lot. (it's called kumite.) Trust me. You do NOT want to get hit by these women.
I might allow a Jessica Jones to take a swig and a swing.