Of course biology matters in sport – this video proves it

Angela Carini pulled out of her fight with Imane Khelif after 46 seconds. How can the IOC allow something as violent and unfair as this?

A woman on her knees sobbing after being punched hard in the face by an opponent who has characteristics of a biological male. She may have a broken nose. Is this sport now? Is this the Olympic ideal? Because that is what we have just witnessed. This is apparently justifiable. Angela Carini, a world and European Championships silver medallist, pulled out of a fight with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after 46 seconds.
I don’t know how she stepped in the ring in the first place. She is no fragile flower but she said she had never been hit so hard before. Through her tears she said she was there to honour her father, and she was a warrior but just had to stop.
As so many have warned, had she continued, God knows what damage would have been done. Controversy has swirled around this match. Both Khelif and a boxer from Taiwan called Lin Yu-Ting have previously been disqualified from the Women’s Boxing World Championship for having unfair advantage over female boxers by the International Boxing Association (IBA). This was not simply because of naturally high levels of testosterone but because they both have XY chromosomes. A simple cheek swab is usually enough to confirm this. Women have XX chromosomes. Their biology is male. Neither of these boxers are “trans”; they were probably born with what is called ‘Differences in Sexual Development’ (DSD) but what it means is that they have the strength and power of males because genetically that is what they are.
Footage of Khelif fighting Brianda Tamara in 2022 shows the force of this boxer’s punch. The IBA at the 11th hour has said both Khelif and Yu-Ting should not be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games but Mark Adams of the IOC has repeatedly defended the inclusion of these genetic males in women’s categories by saying that Kheilf’s passport says “Female”. What a pathetic argument.
Mark Adams and the Eurosport commentators who said nothing should get in the ring with this “female”. Their flagrant disregard for the safety of women and any notion of fairness has gone out of the window. Boxing is a dangerous activity for anyone. To knowingly put a woman in the ring with a biological male in 2024 is to legitimate male violence and call it sport. 
It is disgusting. This is not about inclusivity and there may be some sports in which strength, male puberty and musculature does not matter so much. That question is up for debate, but the vast majority of people and sports federations know to call time on what is actually dangerous for women: for instance, rugby.
Someone with a DSD cannot help the way they were born but they can choose not to cheat; they can choose not to take medals from women; they can choose not to cause injury. 
But propped up by the smug IOC, they have been allowed to carry on the pretence that this is a fair fight. That participation demeans the sport of boxing; it demeans sportswomen. All those who enabled this or kept schtum about it should be on their knees.
Instead, we see this brave Italian woman sobbing and repeating, “Non e giusto”. It’s not right. Indeed, it is gut-punchingly wrong. And now the world has seen it, surely it must stop.