Mick Hartley

Oliver Brown in the Telegraph:

The smouldering scandal of these Paris Games has reached the most explosive possible conclusion, with a biologically male boxer winning an Olympic gold medal as a female. Imane Khelif, the 25-year-old Algerian whose DNA tests have shown the male pattern of XY chromosomes, has swept all the way to the women’s welterweight title after dismantling four successive opponents in four utterly one-sided contests. The outcome of which the International Olympic Committee had for so long been warned – that an overwhelming focus on inclusion could remove fair sport for women – has finally come to pass.

It has been the starkest illustration of a failure of governance at the highest level of global sport. By allowing biological males to fight as women through pure self-ID, the IOC have caused irreparable damage to their claims of protecting the sanctity and integrity of the female category. Khelif celebrated extravagantly by dancing on the spot as the unanimous decision was announced, before being swept out of the ring on the shoulders of the Algerian support staff.

The roar was ear-splitting as the huge Algerian contingent sought to uphold Khelif’s honour. But the ramifications of these extraordinary events, you sense, might only just be beginning. This was the wholly logical outcome of the IOC neglecting to reach any plausible conclusion of the definition of a woman, allowing the lines of biology to be blurred in the most lethal sport of all. Barely believably, the crisis could become worse still, with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, a second boxer deemed ineligible for the female category by boxing chiefs, the favourite for gold on Saturday night after also being given a free pass into the Olympic Games.

Here's the image -  a man hitting a woamn as hard as he can, to cheers from the crowd and an Olympic gold medal:

[Photo: AP/Ariana Cubillos]