Trans Fighters

[GeneChing]

USA Boxing puts forth new trans policy and everybody is ****ed off
Advocates both for and against trans women in women’s sports are unhappy with USA Boxing’s policy.

By Cyd Zeigler@CydZeigler Updated Jan 2, 2024, 5:15pm PST 0 Comments / 0 New


Mikaela Mayer is one of the boxers speaking out against USA Boxing’s trans-inclusion policy. Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images

USA Boxing reportedly has a “new” policy regarding transgender athletes, and it’s already infuriating people across the spectrum.

Advocates for trans women’s participation in the female category are pointing to some of the harshest restrictions in sport. People who oppose trans women in the female category are upset there is any path to participation for them.

The World Boxing Council has, on the international stage, barred trans women from the female category, saying they will build a transgender category. Other countries’ governing bodies, like Boxing New Zealand, have followed suit.

The policy, as widely reported, has a number of key elements to it.

First, every athlete under 18 must compete in the category corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. This flies in the face of many of the more-strict trans-inclusion policies in sports, which allow for athletes to compete in their gender category as long as they haven’t experienced puberty.

Yet in boxing, a 15-year-old trans girl who has been on puberty blockers since they were 10 still has to compete in the male category.

Second, adult boxers must have had gender reassignment surgery. For years, sports governing bodies have moved away from this requirement, so the return of this requirement for USA Boxing is putting the push toward broader trans inclusion in reverse.

Third, adult boxers have to show they have have testosterone levels under 5 nmol/L for four years prior to competing. That four years is the longest wait period for any sport that allows trans women to compete in the female category.

Now USA Boxing is facing widespread criticism for the policy — at this point the strictest in sports (other than outright bans).

On one side, people are critical that the ban has any path to participation for trans women in boxing’s female category. Whether the policy mandated four years or 10 years of HRT,

“I will never agree to this,” said former world champion Ebanie Bridges. “It’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and power lifting but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU not just break a record.”

The “skulls” line has been used to target trans athletes in combat sports ever since Fallon Fox, competing in professional mixed martial arts six years after her transition, broke the eye orbital of an opponent. Critics say she broke her “skull” simply because it sounds worse.

“Hormone therapy is banned,” professional boxer Mikaela Mayer said on X. “By default, this should make trans athletes ineligible for competition. Doesn’t matter how you feel about the situation, fact is, it’s illegal and completely disrupts the even playing field that sport works so hard to create.”

Riley Gaines, the former college swimmer who came to prominence arguing publicly against trans women in female sports after competing against Lia Thomas, said a trans woman will end up killing a female boxer.

“Mark my words, it will take a woman getting killed before these misogynistic fools wake up.”

Dozens of boxers have been killed by cisgender boxers during matches, including a number of women. Major injuries are already a consistent aspect of the sport, before any trans woman steps into the female pro-boxing ring.

For trans advocates, this will be viewed as a setback. While there is a path to participation for trans women in the female category, the mandated surgery and four years of mandated HRT will be considered overly restrictive.

As mentioned, Fox did have surgery and six years of HRT before competing in professional MMA. So it is possible. Yet it’s a far cry from the one- or two-year mandates and no surgery that have been the most common guidelines over the last few years.

USA Boxing seems to be trying to thread the needle here, create a way for trans women to compete, but also raise the barrier to entry high enough to stave off some critics.

In the end, their policy will simply **** off everyone involved in this debate.

Boxing
Fallon Fox

[GeneChing]

Boxer who had gender test issue wins first Olympic fight in Paris when opponent quits after 46 seconds
Angela Carini refused to shake Imane Khelif's hand after the decision was announced, and she cried in the ring before leaving
By Greg Beacham | The Associated Press • Published 5 hours ago • Updated 3 hours ago

Imane Khelif of Algeria won her opening Olympic boxing bout Thursday when opponent Angela Carini of Italy quit after just 46 seconds.

Kheli was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her presence at the Paris Olympics has become a divisive issue. There's no indication she identifies as transgender.

Carini and Khelif had only a few punch exchanges before Carini abandoned the bout, an extremely unusual occurrence in Olympic boxing. Carini’s headgear apparently became dislodged twice before she quit.

Carini refused to shake Khelif's hand after the decision was announced, and she cried in the ring before leaving.

Afterward, a still-tearful Carini said she quit because of intense pain in her nose after the opening punches. Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said she wasn't making a political statement and was not refusing to fight Khelif.

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match," Carini said.


PARIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 01: Angela Carini of Team Italy reacts after abandoning her Women's 66kg preliminary round match against Imane Khelif of Team Algeria in the first round on day six of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at North Paris Arena on August 01, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Khelif is an accomplished amateur who won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association's 2022 world championships. The same governing body disqualified her from last year's championships shortly before her gold-medal match because of what it claimed were elevated levels of testosterone.

The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout's sudden end.

Carini further said she is not qualified to decide whether Khelif should be allowed to compete, but she had no problem fighting her.

“I am not here to judge or pass judgment,” Carini said. "If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”

Khelif is an accomplished amateur who won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association's 2022 world championships. The same governing body disqualified her from last year's championships shortly before her gold-medal match because of what it claimed were elevated levels of testosterone.

The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout's sudden end. Khelif, who fights again Saturday, didn't speak to reporters.

“I am heartbroken because I am a fighter," Carini said. “My father taught me to be a warrior. I have always stepped into the ring with honor and I have always (served) my country with loyalty. And this time I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t fight anymore, and so I ended the match.”

Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan suddenly have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris after years of amateur competition. Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

Lin begins her Paris run Friday, fighting Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in her opening bout after receiving a first-round bye.

The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement Wednesday condemning what it termed “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was visiting Italy athletes in the Olympic Village on Thursday, voiced criticism that Carini had to box Khelif, saying she had since 2021 opposed allowing athletes with “genetically male” characteristics to compete against women.

“We have to pay attention, in an attempt to not discriminate, that we’re actually discriminating” against women’s rights, Meloni said.

She said it was necessary to guarantee the rights of athletes so they are competing on an even playing field.

“In these things what counts is your dedication, your head and character, but it also counts having a parity of arms,” Meloni said.

Khelif and Lin are two-time Olympians who fought in the Tokyo Games with no controversy. Lin has been an elite-level amateur boxer for a decade and Khelif for six years. They were allowed to compete in Paris by the IOC task force, which has run the past two Olympic boxing tournaments.

The IOC on Tuesday defended their right to compete. Olympic boxing reached gender parity for the first time this year, with 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris.

“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. ”They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”

Lin is the top seed in the 57-kilogram category, although Olympic seeding is frequently unindicative of the top medal contenders in a division.

Several sports have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. The track body also last year tightened rules on athletes with differences in sex development.

The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on boxers based on the gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The IOC is in charge of boxing in Paris because the IBA has been banned from the past two Olympics because of years of governance problems, a lack of financial transparency and many perceived instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.

The IOC has revoked the Olympic status of the IBA, which is controlled by president Umar Kremlev, who is Russian. He brought in Russian state-owned Gazprom as its primary sponsor and moved much of the IBA’s operations to Russia.

The IBA has since lost more than three dozen members who have formed a new group called World Boxing, which hopes to be recognized by the IOC as the sport’s governing body ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The IBA has aggressively seized on the boxers’ presence in Paris to criticize the IOC. After the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the IOC’s ban earlier this year, the IBA appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

The banned body issued a statement Wednesday in which it claimed both boxers did not have a “testosterone examination” last year but were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential,” refusing to explain it.

Women’s boxers have been asked about Khelif and Lin repeatedly this week. Many have expressed concern, while others have urged more consideration of an obviously complicated issue.

“I don’t agree with that being allowed, especially in combat sports as it can be incredibly dangerous,” Australia middleweight Caitlin Parker said. “But right now, my focus is on getting through each fight. It’s not like I haven’t sparred with guys before, but it can be dangerous for combat sports, and it should be seriously looked into. It is good that these things are coming out, and it’s being put under the spotlight to be looked into further.

“Biologically and genetically, they are going to have more advantages. Combat sports can be dangerous. Fairness is what it’s all about. We all want fairness in sport.”

Paris-Olympics
Fallon-Fox (someday soon I'll split the trans fighters off into their own thread).

[GeneChing]

Trans boxer Hergie Bacyadan loses historic Olympic bout and still comes out a winner
Two-time Olympic medalist Li Quan of China advances by unanimous decision over the Olympics' first trans-man athlete, Hergie Bacyadan.
By Karleigh Webb
|
July 31, 2024, 3:10 pm PDT


Philippines' Hergie Bacyadan (in blue) takes a punch from China's Li Qian in the women's 75kg preliminaries round of 16 boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the North Paris Arena, in Villepinte on July 31, 2024. | MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images
The climb to the Paris Summer Olympics reached a summit for Philippines boxer Hergie Bacyadan.

The first publicly out transgender man to compete in any Olympic Games climbed through the ropes at North Paris Arena, wearing the blue uniform and aiming to fight.

He was seeded in the deep end of the draw. China’s Li Quan is the 75kg class top seed. She won bronze in Rio and silver in Tokyo. She’s won a world championship in 2018, and is defending Asian Games champion in the weight class.

The difference in experience showed throughout the three-round bout. Bacyadan sought to be aggressive in the first round, but ran into Li’s defense and a jab that set the terms of the engagement. She scored often while Bacyadan struggled to find any openings to counter and hit back.

That was the rhythm of the first two rounds of the fight. In the third round, Bacyadan tried to press the action and was able land some solid punches in the final minute, but Li’s skill and ring savvy carried the match.

The final tally was a 5-0 decision for the Chinese fighter, a clean sweep of all three rounds, and advancement to the quarterfinals and another step closer to winning a first Olympic gold. Bacyadan boxed valiantly, but on this day the better fighter advanced.

For Bacyadan, his first Olympics ends in a loss but also with a win for the future. The door to Olympic competition is now open for other transgender men.

“It’s sad to think of losing, but I’m still very thankful that I got to the Olympics,” he wrote on Instagram. “It’s a big deal to me.”

Paris-Olympics
Boxing
Fallon-Fox (someday soon I'll split the trans fighters off into their own thread).

[GeneChing]

Fallon-Fox (someday soon I'll split the trans fighters off into their own thread).

That day is today: Trans-Fighters

[GeneChing]

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif wins Olympic gold in face of political controversy
Updated August 9, 20247:23 PM ET
By Becky Sullivan, Fatima Al-Kassab


Imane Khelif of Algeria (left) defeated Liu Yang of China to win Olympic gold in the women's 66-kilogram boxing event.
Maja Hitij/Getty Images

PARIS — The Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has won the Olympic gold medal, defiant amid the international political controversy that loomed over her every bout as she advanced through the women's boxing event in the 2024 Summer Games.

Over three rounds Friday, the crowd at Roland-Garros Stadium in Paris chanted her name and cheered wildly with every blow that Khelif landed on her opponent, China's Yang Liu. The two took turns as the aggressor in the close match. As the bell rang to signal the end of each round, the two boxers respectfully tapped the other's glove.

In the end, the judges agreed: Khelif had bested Yang to win the 66-kilogram weight class gold medal. And the thousands of Algeria fans who packed the stands cheered with delight as Khelif took her victory lap sitting astride the shoulders of a coach.

After the bout Friday, Khelif said forcefully that she had indeed been qualified to compete. "I'm a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman. I lived a woman. I competed as a woman. There's no doubt about that," she said.

The gold medal, she said, was a response to "all those who criticized me." She called her critics "the enemies of success" and said their attacks had given her victory a "special taste."


Algeria's Imane Khelif celebrates winning the gold medal with her coaches Mohamed Chaoua and Mohamed Al-Shawa after the Boxing Women's 66kg final against Liu Yang of China on Friday.
Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Questions and controversy over the 25-year-old's eligibility to participate in the Olympics had persisted even as Olympic officials repeatedly defended her and a second boxer who had also been a target, Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, who will compete for the gold medal in her own weight class on Saturday.

The controversy over the two women stems from a decision by the International Boxing Association to disqualify them after claiming they had each failed two gender eligibility tests in the past two years. The IBA, a Russia-linked organization that was banned last year from the Olympics over corruption concerns, has refused to produce proof of the results or describe how the tests were conducted. At times, its officials have given conflicting accounts of what the tests entailed.

Khelif and Lin have both competed in women's boxing for years, including a fifth-place finish for Khelif at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Olympic officials have dismissed the IBA claims and accused the organization of political motivations in conducting and publicizing the tests.

The timing of Khelif's disqualification by the IBA, which came shortly after Khelif defeated a Russian boxer, has raised questions about the group's motivation. "They know me very well. They know what I'm capable of. They know how I've developed over the years. But now they are not recognized anymore. And they hate me. And I don't know why," Khelif said Friday.

Earlier Friday, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee rejected the suggestion that the two women were allowed to compete in the name of inclusion.


Speaking Friday about the ongoing controversy, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said, "This is not a question of inclusion. That never played a role in all this. Women must be allowed to take part in women's competitions, and the two are women."
George Mattock/Getty Images
"This is not a question of inclusion. That never played a role in all this," Bach said. "Women must be allowed to take part in women's competitions, and the two are women."

Bach said the IOC would welcome an eligibility test that could be conducted in accordance with both science and human rights. "We do not like this uncertainty," he said.

"But what is not possible," he continued, would be to disqualify competitors because "someone saying, 'This is not a woman,' just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interests."

Among the pro-Khelif crowd in the stands at Roland-Garros on Friday was Lilia Bellahsene, an Algerian-American woman who moved to France last year. She and her French-Algerian cousin found last-minute tickets to see Khelif, she said.

"She is really, for me, a symbol of resilience and fight," Bellahsene said. "We want to show her some support. We want to tell her that she made us proud, not just as Algerians but as people."

The support for Khelif extended outside the stadium; France is home to the largest population of Algerians outside of the north African country.

Many bar TVs in Paris on Friday night were tuned to France's national women's basketball team as they played in a high-stakes semifinal against Belgium. But one bar in Paris' Belleville neighborhood, Bar Suzette, had an Algerian channel on instead; its French-Algerian owner Momo Benazouz wanted to see the boxing match.

As Khelif stepped into the ring, viewers began to crowd in from nearby bars in order to catch a glimpse of their countrywoman. And once it became clear that she had won the bout, the place erupted with chants of "Imane, Imane."

Zahia Elza Arrouf, who watched the match wrapped in an Algerian scarf, beamed and cheered as Khelif was awarded the gold medal. "She is a strong woman, a real woman, an Algerian woman," she said. "She has suffered a lot when they said she wasn't a woman. And now she's won gold. She is so courageous, and she gives all Algerian women, all Arab women courage."

Her victory made her the first Arab or African woman to win a boxing gold. And it is only the second medal for Algeria in this year's Olympics. The other was also won by a woman — the gymnast Kaylia Nemour, who took gold in the uneven bars final.

Correction
Aug. 10, 2024
A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Imane Khelif's match was on Saturday. In fact, it took place on Friday.

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Boxing
Trans-Fighters