Recently, the debate of transgender participation in sports has heated up due to controversies at the Olympics involving female boxer Imane Khelif. In the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal in the welterweight boxing event. In the round of 16, Khelif defeated the Italian boxer Angela Carini in 46 seconds. “It’s not fair…I have never been hit so hard in my life,” Carini said after the match. That statement went viral, causing the media, celebrities, and the general public to add their voices to the debate of transgender participants in sports. Once that moment went viral, many people assumed Khelif was a biological male.
Imane Khelif is a biological female and identifies as a female. The reason people assumed she was a biological male was because last year she “failed” her gender eligibility test required by the International Boxing Association (IBA). The test results showed that she had XY chromosomes and has a condition called Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) making her chromosomes XY even though she is a biological female and identifies as a female. It has not been proven that female athletes with DSD have an unfair advantage.
Once this information was released, many celebrities shared their own opinions through social media including J.K Rowling, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Logan Paul. After Khelif received backlash, she decided to sue X for cyber harassment due to gender and public insult, including celebrities who have posted hateful assumptions and statements about Khelif.
This controversy comes after years of increasing attention on the issue. In 2022, GHSA refused to let transgender girls and boys play on the team that matches their gender identification, passing a ruling that they have to play on their biological gender’s team. This rule is still in use.
A student who prefers to stay anonymous said, “Even though I am not fully educated on the topic, I feel like there is an obvious disadvantage when identifying as female and participating in female sports when you still have XY chromosomes. I believe the [sports] organizations should find a common ground and finalize the rules to make it fair for everyone.”
