Italian boxer Angela Carini withdrew from her Olympic match against Algeria’s Imane Khelif just 46 seconds after a brutal blow to her head.
Carini described the blow to her nose as the hardest she had ever felt.
This incident has intensified an already heated debate about the role of sex and gender in sport.
So, how do we fix this problem? Should sporting institutions change how they evaluate sex and gender?
Click and listen the full episode below:
On today’s The Briefing, host Bension Siebert talks to Eric Windholz, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Monash University and an expert in the law and regulation of sport.
They unpack how sex testing became a part of the Olympics in the first place and the challenge global sport is facing to reconcile science with fairness in world-class competition.
Khelif, who had been disqualified from the 2023 World Boxing Championships for failing a gender eligibility test, was cleared to compete in Paris.
This change occurred after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took over boxing’s governance from the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Mr Windholz said the sports industry is grappling with this complex issue and there has been a debate between two principles in the Olympics.
“One principle is the principle of fairness, that people should all have a fair opportunity to compete and succeed. And the other principle is the principle of inclusivity. We should include as many people as we can,” he said.
“Our understanding that male and female is far from a simple binary, that there are people who have a whole range of what’s called DSDs or disorders of sexual development where they can have both male and female chromosomal, hormonal, and reproductive organs.”
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