RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Audio excerpt — Sky News Reporter:

“The crowd is absolutely roaring inside here at centre court at Roland Garros Stadium – 15,000 fans have packed that stadium tonight to watch Imane Khelif. Most of the fans there are Algerian supporters and they have been backing her in 100 per cent of the way. They were cheering ‘Imane Imane Imane.’”

RUBY:

When Imane Khelif won gold in the women’s boxing over the weekend, she did it amid a global storm of abuse and vitriol.

Audio excerpt — Boxing Commentator:

“The winner on points by unanimous decision, gold medallist and Olympic champion, in red from Algeria, Imaaaaaaane Kheliiiiiiiiiiiif.”

[Theme Music Starts]

RUBY:

Khelif has been targeted by everyone from Donald Trump, to J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk over unfounded questions about her gender and eligibility to compete.

After her resounding win, Imane Khelif said the attacks she has endured gave her gold medal an “extra special taste”.

Today, Fox Sports News presenter and women's sports advocate Sam Squiers on the moral panic about “fairness” in women’s sport and the long insidious history of scrutinising female bodies.

It’s Monday, August 12.

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RUBY:

So, Sam, maybe the best place to start this story is the moment when Algerian boxer Imane Khelif stepped into the ring to face off against Angela Carini from Italy. Tell me what happened?

SAM:

Well, this was just a preliminary match in the 66 kilogram division. As you mentioned, we had Imane Khelif from Algeria up against the Italian, Angela Carini. They're both 25 years old.

It's important to note that Imane had competed in Tokyo before she made it all the way through to the quarterfinals. This wasn't her first Olympics. You didn't hear about her in Tokyo, but you may have heard about her in the Paris Olympics.

So the bout lasted just 46 seconds. Carini after receiving a punch to the face, signalled for headgear to be checked. She went back to a corner and then came back and got punched again and then her team then signalled the end of the match that they were withdrawing. She actually started crying and could be heard saying “it’s just not right”.

Audio excerpt — Angela Carini:

“It’s just not right.”

SAM:

Carini then, as Khelif was declared the winner, fell to her knees and started sobbing. She actually declined to shake Khelif's hand after the match.

Audio excerpt — Boxing Commentator:

“The winner by abandon – in red from Algeria, Imane Khelif.”

SAM:

She then, after the match as well, made the comment that she had never been hit so hard in her life. They were comments that really ignited nothing short of a firestorm that absolutely went global. It was fuelled by a whole heap of misinformation and the IBA, the International Boxing Association.

RUBY:

Okay, before we go into that firestorm, let's talk a bit about Imane Khelif. What is her story and how did she become the boxer that she is?

SAM:

Well, Imane grew up in , and growing up in Algeria, she actually learned to box as a way to protect herself. She grew up in a rough area. She wanted to protect herself against the local boys. And the bitter irony, really, is that the thing that she taught herself to prevent herself from being attacked, she's now being attacked for on the global stage.

RUBY:

And you mentioned these comments that Carini made after she lost about never having been hit that hard. But can you tell me how this went from someone after a match kind of being a bit of a sore loser to this international media storm and really what amounts to a moral panic?

SAM:

Yeah, it really was a moral panic and straightaway after those comments, people started putting Imane in the spotlight. They started questioning her gender, questioning whether she was female, whether she should be fighting, whether there are safety issues here and it just exploded. It got so out of hand so quickly.

Audio excerpt — American News Reporter 1:

“Controversy surrounding the gender of one boxer…”

Audio excerpt — American News Reporter 2:

“So the olympics thinks it’s fair for a genetic male to punch a woman so hard in the face she quits and cries as long as it says female on her passport.”

Audio excerpt — American News Reporter 3:

“The boxer deemed a biological male beating an Italian female opponent with the Italian crying out ‘I couldn’t take it anymore.’”

SAM:

And the whole world knew about it. You had very prominent, anti-trans activists. You had people like J.K. Rowling coming out, even Donald Trump.

Audio excerpt — Trump:

“They want to have men playing in women's sports. You saw the boxer today - the Italian female boxer. Just saying, two shots. Two shots, she pulled away.”

SAM:

There were people also saying that she was intersex, that she had XY chromosomes, that she had heightened testosterone. And it was really sparked from an event that happened last year with the IBA, the International Boxing Association.

Imane Khelif was actually disqualified from the World Championships after allegedly failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. Now, this is a test that we haven't seen, the test that’s the results have never been published and the details of which are really, really vague.

But there's a bigger story that's playing out between the IOC, the International Olympic Committee and the IBA.

RUBY:

Okay, so these claims about Khelif’s gender, they stem from the International Boxing Association and this unspecified gender test, a test that as you say, hasn't been seen, hasn't been published. And then this disqualification at the World Championships. So let's just interrogate the IBA's role here a bit more. Why is it doing these tests? How much credibility does it have and what's going on between the IBA and the IOC?

SAM:

Well, I think in order to get into the IBA, you have to understand the political landscape between the IBA and the IOC. Now, the IOC actually withdrew its recognition of the IBA as boxing's governing body in 2019 due to concerns over finance, over governance and corruption credibility issues.

It's important to note that IBA’s president is a man called Umar Kremlev – a bit of a controversial character. The IBA has deep ties to Russia as well.

The IBA actually became the first governing body to essentially be expelled by the IOC in Olympic history, and had never come before. So it means the IBA doesn't run boxing at the Olympics. It means the IOC ran boxing at the Olympics.

There is a lot of tension because of that decision between the IBA and the IOC. But last year, in 2023, at the World Championships, IBA disqualified not only Imane Khelif right before her final match. She was competing for the world title. It also came after she actually beat a Russian opponent in the preliminary rounds but they also disqualified another boxer from Taiwan called Lin Yu Ting.

Audio excerpt — IBA Spokesperson:

“Their results came through and it demonstrated the chromosomes that we referred to within the technical competition rules that make both boxers ineligible.”

SAM:

There was a lot of misinformation about this, like they said that these gender tests showed elevated testosterone levels and they claimed that they carried the XY chromosomes. The IOC came out quite strongly in support of them telling media that they were born women, that they were raised women, that their passports are women. That this is not a case of a man fighting a woman.

Audio excerpt — IOC Spokesperson:

“The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case.”

SAM:

It even forced Imane Khelif’s own father in Algeria - he came out in support of his daughter and showed photos of her when she was a young girl trying to prove that she was a woman.

Audio excerpt — Imane’s father:

[Speaking in Arabic]

SAM:

But it just couldn't control the moral panic that really set in.

RUBY:

Yeah. I mean, how awful for Imane, someone who's trying to – she's feeling the pressure you presume of trying to win gold at the Olympics and then has to withstand all of this as well. I can't imagine how difficult that would be.

SAM:

Having your identity absolutely scrutinised and bullied on the global stage with a whole heap of misinformation. You don't have time to correct them. You know she's there to win a gold medal and that's all that she wanted to do.

I think it's important to note, as well as Angela Carini, who started this firestorm with the comments that she made after she fought Imane. You know, she's actually come out and apologised to Imane after this.

Audio excerpt — Angela Carini:

[Apologising to Khelif in Italian]

SAM:

She admitted that she was angry after the bout and that, you know, she didn't expect it to blow up in the way that it did. And if she saw Imane Khelif, if she passed by on the street, then she would embrace Imane Khelif.

RUBY:

After the break, the troubled history of testing testosterone.

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RUBY:

Sam, we've been talking about the moral panic that sprung up around Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. And it's not just her. You mentioned Taiwan's Lin Yu Ting. Both of these athletes though, they have competed at previous Olympics. So, why do you think that in this moment at this competition, misinformation about them spiralled so quickly?

SAM:

You know, we had all kinds of media outlets taking information from one or another, and it was hard to actually find out what was happening here.

We had all these former boxers coming out of the woodwork talking about protecting women's sports and protecting women's boxing, and having a problem with Imane competing in the Paris Olympics. You know, we didn't hear from these people when, you know, we were talking about equal pay or equal opportunities for women in boxing or even when boxing for women itself was illegal, even in Australia not that long ago.

There's misinformation, but also there's just misunderstanding. People fear what they don't know, what they don't understand, what really challenges their sense of norm. I mean, it's not new. Women's bodies, especially in sport, have been heavily scrutinised for years and years and years. And this was just another case of women's bodies again being scrutinised unfairly.

RUBY:

Well, let's talk a bit more about that. Women's bodies, as you say, they have always been heavily scrutinised, particularly when it comes to sport. It seems like any female athlete who looks strong faces judgement about their appearance rather than their performance.

SAM:

Well, I think that's it. I think some people have this notion of what makes up a female and a female athlete. And that is a very westernised model of what is a female athlete. And if you don't fit that mould, then questions are asked about your gender. We see it often, not exclusively, but we do see it disproportionately often when it comes to women of colour. You know, we saw it with Serena Williams. She didn't fit the mould. She was muscly, she was strong. She was, I think, just absolutely incredible, but she'd faced questions over her gender throughout her career. We've seen it with Brittney Griner. Martina Navratilova is another one. Even Katie Ledecky faces questions about her gender and USA sevens rugby sensation, one of my favourite new athletes Ilona Maher as well. You know, she doesn't fit the mould. All of the attributes that make these women so strong are absolute genetic marvels. Whereas marvels in men don't get heavily scrutinised. Think of Michael Phelps like he was a genetic marvel with his big flipper feet and that huge wingspan. You know, we celebrate that in men, but in women we scrutinise it, which is completely unfair.

The IOC as well, they no longer do gender tests. They have a really tortured history of doing gender tests on women, making them basically strip down and prove that they were female. They measured testosterone levels in women as well, and if they were too elevated, then they would force them to take suppressants to bring those levels down. And there's just so many complications about this and the science isn't right.

We had the IOC come out as well and just say testosterone isn't the perfect test. You know, women have different levels of testosterone, have different levels of testosterone on different days at different stages. It isn't a perfect measure, this measure of testosterone. In some women, it can have a negative effect. And I think it's also just fuelled by misunderstanding of the science of female bodies. And it comes down to this very westernised stereotype of what a female athlete is, that, you know, if you don't fit that mould, then questions are asked.

RUBY:

So the IOC has backed these athletes and defended their right to compete. So this is not really a question of failure on behalf of the IOC. If that's the case, is this then less about how the sports world needs to do better and more about everyone else and about how we handle misinformation and assumptions and prejudice?

SAM:

Absolutely. This definitely transcends sport and the firestorm that we saw from this particular issue really showed us that as well. You know, people who may not follow the Olympics took an interest in this as well. This is a social issue.

If something doesn't seem right, or if you are challenged by it, take the time to learn more about it and find more sources and reliable sources.

You know, I have two little girls as well who are watching the Olympics and watching these female athletes. I want my girls to grow up in a world where their bodies aren't policed, where their bodies aren't scrutinised; to appreciate what their bodies can do, not what they look like.

RUBY:

Sam, thank you so much for your time.

SAM:

Thank you.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Australia’s olympic chief Anna Meares has described the harassment of breakdancer Rachael Gunn as “really disappointing”.

Gunn, known as “Raygun” failed to score a point in the breakdancing event and was knocked out at the round robin stage. Her performance sparked widespread online jokes, as well as bullying.

Following the event, Raygun defended herself saying “all my moves are original”.

This is the first time breaking has been included in the Olympics.

And,

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has confirmed that its communications have been hacked, after US news site Politico started receiving anonymous emails with documents from the campaign.

Trump’s campaign said that “foreign sources hostile to the United States” were behind the attack and suggested Iran may be involved – a claim that has not been verified.

That’s all for today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, we would so appreciate you sharing it with a friend.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. Thanks for listening.

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