Olympic Trans Panic
Can reactionaries on social media please stop ruining things I love?
I love the Olympics. There are good reasons to be critical of the politics, wastefulness, and governance of the Olympics, but I've loved the games as long as I can remember. I will never forget watching Kerri Strug battle torn ligaments in her ankle, stick the landing on the vault to win the first team gold medal for the USA, and collapse in a combination of pain and jubilation. Or seeing Jordan, Bird, and Magic cheese it up while absolutely dominating.
But the X platform™ is ruining it for me and now I have to get it off my chest. Today's controversy revolves around two boxers, Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, who were disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association tournament for "failing gender eligibility tests." There are some truly gross comments on the X platform™ that I don't care to link to. Search at your own risk if you'd like to see examples. The claim is that Imane Khelif failed a chromosomal test which revealed she has XY chromosomes, and Lin Yu-ting had too much testosterone and were thus banned from competition, but the Olympics are too woke or something and decided to let them compete anyway.
I want to cover two points here:
- The source of the accusations, the International Boxing Association
- If the accusations were true, what then?
The International Boxing Association
The IBA is massively corrupt. It's run by Umar Kremlev, a Russian national with ties to Vladimir Putin, and has a general partner agreement with Gazprom, a Russian state owned oil and gas company. You may remember that the scandal surrounding the 2016 Olympics concerning referees manipulating the outcome of boxing matches—that was the IBA. An independent investigation found outrageous levels of corruption. Directors of National Olympic Committees literally handed cash to referees to throw the match for their fighter.
Bouts were manipulated for money, perceived benefit of [IBA], or to thank National Federations and their Olympic committees, and, on occasion, hosts of competitions for their financial support and political backing.
The full report is long, detailed and absolutely fascinating.
A few years later, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they tried to ban Ukrainians from competing under their own flag, and only changed course after the International Olympic Committee launched an investigation (and Ukrainian fighters refused to comply anyway). All this led to Finland, Sweden, USA, and others boycotting IBA tournaments and forming an alternative organization, and eventually the IOC stripping the IBA of it's status as boxing's governing body. That's why the IBA's ban on Ms Khelif and Ms Yu-ting no longer applies—the IOC took over and said that they've cleared their standard eligibility tests.
So, I have to wonder, why are people on the X platform™ taking this disgraced, hopelessly corrupt organization's word over the IOC when it comes to gender eligibility testing? To risk verging into conspiracy theory, it's interesting that Ms Khelif was banned 30 minutes before she was supposed to fight a Chinese fighter, and Ms Yu-ting is Taiwanese. Neither was a friend to China in that moment, and this competition happened a few months before China went all in supporting Russia and their invasion of Ukraine. I'm not suggesting that they agreed to that in exchange for some boxing matches being thrown, but this happened at a time when Russia was almost certainly actively attempting to gain China's support.
The failed eligibility tests
I wouldn't put it past the IBA to fake some eligibility tests for a whole host of reasons even if my "Russia buttering up China" conspiracy isn't correct. But let's set that aside and consider what if the tests are right? First of all, a woman having XY chromosome doesn't mean she's transgender. There are a host of conditions that cause atypical sexual development. Same with excess testosterone. Hormones fluctuate, and some women have higher testosterone than others, just as some men have higher estrogen than others. The assumption that they're malicious actors and actually "men trying to win an easy medal and beat the shit of some women" isn't warranted. Even if those tests were the correct, it could just be a genetic condition. Taking to the X platform™ to misgender them and smear them as angry, obsessive woman-beating men is not a healthy or helpful reaction, and only serves to further marginalize actual transgender folks.
Besides, the idea that someone would go through intensive, long term physical changes and join an extremely marginalized group so they would maybe have a better chance of winning a medal is absurd on it's face. Olympians spend their entire lives maintaining and honing their bodies and athleticism, and hormone treatments can have unpredictable effects. For example, trans women typically have lower bone density than cis folks and are at a higher risk of bone fractures. Would a boxer really risk that? Or any Olympic hopeful for that matter? It's just not a thing that actually happens.
No transgender person transitions in order to be better at sports. Is it possible that someone could? Of course. It's also possible that a basketball player could attempt to get taller using cosmetic surgery, or a swimmer could get surgery to give them webbed feet. Should we demand regulations for those possibilities as well? Should we constantly question whether or not some athlete has had black market eye surgery that gives them super vision?
There are, of course, transgender athletes, but they transition for the same reason as transgender non-athletes—gender dysphoria. Should there be an eligibility framework around transgender women competing in women's sports? It depends on the level of competition and the sport, but sure, as long as it holds the dignity of all athletes paramount. That's for doctors, athletes, and other experts to determine. It's a complex issue and I don't know enough about it to have a strong opinion, largely because it's just not all that common, and when it has happened, it's been fine. Nobody seemed all that worked up about it when Laurel Hubbard competed in the 2020 Olympics, for instance. The further marginalization and demonization of trans folks by segments of the right wing is the much more pressing issue, and the Olympic trans panic only feeds into that.