Paris 2024 fuels controversy over men's participation in women's sports competitions

This Thursday, the controversy that had already been fanned for months about the participation of males athletes in women's sports competitions reached its climax. 

It happened during a boxing match at the Paris 2024 Olympics between Italy's Angela Carini and Imane Kheliff that ended 46 seconds into the bout when Carini decided to pull out after finding herself absolutely outclassed against someone who had previously been disqualified for not meeting International Boxing Association (IBA) eligibility criteria for the 2023 World Championships. 

However, the International Olympic Committee allowed Kheliff to participate, justifying its decision on the grounds that this time the athlete had indeed passed the criteria set by the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU) and, therefore, could compete in the welterweight category. Carini, who from the beginning did not see the fight as fair, got into the ring but after the first few punches of the fight, decided to quit.

According to what the athlete explained minutes later she made that decision for her family since, as soon as the fight began, she realized that her life was in danger:

"I felt very strong blows, I received blows, I am a fighter and my team knows it, I am someone who, even in the face of pain, never stops. If I stopped, I did it only for my family." Angela Carini, Italian boxer who faced Imane Kheliff.

Reactions to the fight were swift. Personalities from all over the world quickly took to social networks where they expressed their indignation at the International Olympic Committee for allowing something like this to happen;

One of the first people to speak out was former athlete Riley Gaines. The activist claimed the images showed that "men don't belong in women's sports" and launched the hashtag #IStandWithAngelaCarini which quickly trended:

Elon Musk, the owner of the social network X, soon joined the movement and, in response to Gaines' post, added an "absolutely" with which he implied that his opinion was the same as that of the former athlete:

J.K. Rowling also took to the social networking site X to talk about the controversial bout. In a thread of posts, the "Harry Potter" writer assured that this was not right: "This is not sport. From the cheating bully dressed in red to the organizers who allowed this to happen, this is about men basking in their power over women."

Olympic athlete Sharron Davies also criticized what happened, accusing the organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics of "allowing men to beat women." The same sentiment was expressed by tennis legend and Olympian Martina Navratilova, who said the whole situation was "deplorable."

Numerous politicians, against the participation of men in women's competitions

The international political scene also wanted to talk about the controversy. If first, and minutes before the fight took place, the different Italian politicians had already spoken, the rest of the world decided not to remain silent. 

Thus, the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, assured that the images simply "exposed reality in the face of imbecility":

For her part, former U.K. prime minister Liz Truss wondered, "When will all this madness end?" while noting that "men can't become women."

Former president and Republican candidate for the November presidential election, Donald Trump, also reacted to the controversy. He did so through a publication on Truth Social in which he pledged to keep men out of female sports competitions:

These words were followed by a somewhat broader statement from a Trump campaign spokesman who assured Fox News Digital that Trump will eliminate "the Harris-Biden Administration's radical rewrite of Title IX."

"President Trump has been unequivocally clear that he will NOT stand for men competing in women’s sports – an insane and unfair reality that has been allowed to transpire because of Radical Left politicians like Kamala Harris. When he returns to the White House, President Trump will take immediate action to protect women and girls and overturn the Harris-Biden Administration's radical rewrite of Title IX."

Following the controversy unleashed during the bout between Carini and Kheliff, the International Olympic Committee issued a statement in which it assured that "as with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport."

Other similar controversies

This is not the first time that women in the sports world have suffered the consequences of authorities allowing transgender men to participate in competitions of their gender. 

One of the most resounding cases was that of trans swimmer Lia Thomas. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allowed her to compete in the women's category despite being a biological male.

This allowed her to take advantage of the situation and, in 2022, she achieved first place in the first division swimming championship, earning the criticism of personalities such as Riley Gaines and Martina Navratilova who did not consider it fair for Thomas to participate in sports competitions:

Another resounding case was that of the team of the volleyball player, Payton McNabb. The 17-year-old was hit hard by a ball thrown to her by one of her transgender rivals and ended with her partially paralyzed after, as seen in the images, the impact ended with her on the ground unconscious: 

As McNabb detailed to the Daily Mail, after knocking her down, her trans rival laughed, as did the rest of the opposing team's players. 

So as soon as she learned that two other people who had failed gender eligibility tests had been allowed to compete in the boxing disciplines at the Olympics she could only consider it "disgusting" and fear that two other women would suffer worse injuries than the one she suffered recently.