Olympic sex controversy: Former UK sports minister says 'this cannot be allowed to continue' and that IOC criteria on gender must be 'tougher'
A former UK sports minister has told the News Letter that the controversy over who is eligible to compete in female sports at the Olympics “cannot be allowed to continue”.
Kate Hoey was speaking amid the smouldering row over Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer whose sex has come into question, alongside that of Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-Ting.
Khelif won against an Italian opponent on Thursday, and on Friday Lin Yu-Ting beat an Uzbek opponent.
Both of the winning fighters had previously been disqualified from competing by the International Boxing Association (IBA, the body which – until recently – ran Olympic boxing) after failing gender eligibility tests.
"I feel very strongly that it's not fair or safe for someone who's been born a biological male to be competing in female sport,” said Baroness Hoey, a former NI champion high-jumper who was Labour sports minister from 1999 to 2001, and was named Boris Johnson’s sports commissioner in 2008 when he was London mayor.
"It's a very simple issue. But sadly it's become one of these concerns that some people just want to ignore because they don't want to be accused of being transphobic.
"I'm certainly not transphobic but I understand completely why anyone who has worked very, very hard to get into competitive sport will be horrified to find they're not competing on an equal basis.”
She said that “the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been very short-sighted” in its gender criteria, and that “governing bodies of sport should be making the decision… obviously the IOC should've been much tougher".
She added that the IOC does have UK members, “and I’d call on the UK representatives to speak out and ensure that this cannot be allowed to continue”.
The IBA banned Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting from competing based on testing done in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
At that time, IBA president Umar Kremlev was quoted by Russian news service TASS as saying this was because “DNA testing" had shown “they have XY chromosomes”, making them genetically male.
Confusingly, it has been reported elsewhere that their disqualification was actually down to excess testosterone, which it is perfectly possible for females to have.
The IBA has since posted up a statement saying “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test”, but would not confirm what this test consisted of.
It added: “Lin Yu-ting did not appeal the IBA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, thus rendering the decision legally binding.
"Imane Khelif initially appealed the decision to CAS but withdrew the appeal during the process, also making the IBA decision legally binding.”
However, the IBA no longer runs Olympic boxing, and instead the IOC decided that both athletes could compete in the 2024 games.
Dr Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist and one of the most vocal scientific critics of the transgender movement, has suggested that Khelif was “born with a DSD [disorder of sex development] and incorrectly labelled female” (or “difference of sex development”, as the NHS calls it).
"This Olympic fight, where a male was allowed to fight a female, should have NEVER been allowed,” he said.
"It's a result of the widespread media lie that males with certain DSDs are simply ‘females with naturally high testosterone’. That lie will get someone killed.”
Meanwhile Dr Kathleen Stock, a former philosophy professor, said: “[I] should probably record my further thoughts on Khelif: unfair, should not compete as female, but not trans either and for all we know, believes sincerely is female from birth.
"DSDs are different to ‘identifying’ as a woman age 43 or whatever. Failure is IOC's.”
Ulster boxing hero Barry McGuigan meanwhile tweeted that what had happened was “shocking, dangerous and profoundly unfair on women & girls – IOC hang your head in shame”.