Don't get in that ring. The door that many would not like to open, perhaps even the IOC, is a boxing match between the Italian Angela Carini and the Algerian Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer excluded from the World Championships because her DNA has a male chromosome but admitted to the Olympic Games .
Today is the announced welterweight bout, and Italian sport remains in suspense. CONI asked the IOC that "the rights of all athletes comply with the Olympic charter and health regulations", i.e. with the rules on the complicated issue of gender. Italian boxing, already in shock due to the eliminations of its top Italian players, is worried about Khelif's stone fist, met by Carini in the Assisi training camp, and which the Mexican Brianda Tamara defined as «worse than those of many male sparring partners» .
The Algerian press is outraged because Italy talks about 'transgender'. In reality it is not proven that Khelif is transgender, she could also be hyperandrogynous. What is certain is that she was excluded from the world final because the DNA test revealed the presence of the XY gene, specific to men .
From JK Rowling's tweet to Matteo Salvini's indignation. Until the ministers' declarations. Roccella (Family): «The participation of two transgender boxers in the Games is cause for concern, after they had not been admitted to other international competitions». Abodi (Sport): «Fair competition will not be guaranteed for Angela Carini» .
The International Olympic Committee is not interested in knowing whether the Algerian is transgender or hyperandrogynous like Caster Semenya, the South African distance runner who became a global sensation. For its part, the IOC had closed all questions six days ago, when the first doubts about the draw emerged from Italian boxing: for us, the answer was IOC, Khelif is a woman .
The world federation also attacks the IOC: «The admission raises serious questions about the principle of fair competition and the protection of athletes» . However, the IOC is based on the level of testosterone, the male strength hormone, the only criterion - according to it - to define whether a female athlete has an advantage, even in the inclusion Olympics. Basically, world sport doesn't care if you are a man or a woman, if you have chosen a transition like Lia Thomas, the American swimmer, or Laurel Hubbard, New Zealander and first trans athlete at the Games, three years ago. It only matters if as a woman you have too much masculine strength for your opponent. A choice, for example, contested by timeless champions such as Martina Navratilova, a life-long defender of homosexual rights. And Khelif's testosterone level is female, per the IOC.
