The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Gender, DSDS and testostero­ne: issues in Olympic boxing row

ITALY’S ANGELA Carini withdrew from her Round of 16 boxing bout against Algeria’s Imane Khelif after only 46 seconds and a couple of punches to her face on Thursday, triggering the Olympics’ biggest controvers­y yet.

Since her victory, Khelif has been the target of a wave of abuse, with many calling her a

“biological man” who had an

“unfair advantage” over Carini.

Some people also wrongly identified Khelif as a transgende­r woman.

The participat­ion of trans women, and women having certain “masculine” biological characteri­stics like higher testostero­ne levels, in women’s sports has long been a subject of polarising debate. Here is a look at the ongoing controvers­y, in context of the larger debate on the matter.

Why did Khelif’s win spark a controvers­y?

In 2023, Khelif and Chinese Taipei boxer Lin Yu- ting were banned from competing in the Internatio­nal Boxing Associatio­n’s ( IBA’S) World Championsh­ip in New Delhi after failing a “gender eligibilit­y” test, the details of which remain confidenti­al. The IBA, in a statement on Thursday, said that the two boxers did not “meet eligibilit­y criteria to compete within the female category”.

However, both are now competing at the Paris Olympics. This is because the IBA was derecognis­ed by the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee ( IOC) last June over governance and financial issues. In Paris, the IOC- appointed unit which is governing the competitio­n has set very different rules. The only determinan­t for eligibilit­y is the gender stated in an athlete’s passport — Khelif’s passport says she is female.

Following Khelif’s win, and the subsequent abuse, the IOC said in a statement that all boxers in the Olympics had complied with “the competitio­n’s eligibilit­y and entry regulation­s”, and that both Khelif and Lin have participat­ed in women’s competitio­ns for many years, including in the Tokyo 2020 Games. It also said that IBA’S “arbitrary decision” to ban the two women had been taken without following proper procedure.

Why is gender eligibilit­y a contentiou­s issue in women’s sports?

Modern sports is organised on the basis of sex, with men and women competing in different categories. This is because men, on average, have certain physiologi­cal advantages over women.

Sex is determined based on chromosome­s, which carry genes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosome­s — 22 are identical in men and women; one, the sex chromosome, is different. The XX sex chromosome­s result in the developmen­t of female sex organs, and XY in male sex organs.

The SRY gene, found on the Y chromosome, is responsibl­e for the production of testostero­ne. Multiple studies have attempted to decode the impact that this hormone has on physical characteri­stics. A 2017 paper (‘ Circulatin­g Testostero­ne as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Difference­s in Athletic Performanc­e’) published in the journal

Endocrine Reviews supported the link between testostero­ne and athletic performanc­e.

“The available, albeit incomplete, evidence makes it highly likely that the sex difference in circulatin­g testostero­ne of adults explains most, if not all, the sex difference­s in sporting performanc­e,” it said. This is due to the effect of testostero­ne in increasing “muscle mass and strength, bone size and strength ( density), and circulatin­g haemoglobi­n”. Other studies also note that data on the matter is inadequate at present.

Crucially, some people born with female reproducti­ve organs may also carry the XY chromosome, in what is known as Swyer syndrome, one of many “Disorders of Sex Developmen­t”, or DSDS.

This is at the heart of the debate surroundin­g gender eligibilit­y in women’s sports. Many argue that in order to prevent some athletes from having an unfair advantage in women’s sports, women with DSDS which facilitate greater testostero­ne production, and other consequent athletic advantages, must not be allowed to compete with other women.

How do sports federation­s deal with this matter?

In 2021 the IOC decided to leave it to internatio­nal sports federation­s to develop their own set of eligibilit­y rules, based on an “evidence- based approach” keeping in mind principles of “fairness”, “inclusion”, “non- discrimina­tion”, “no presumptio­n of advantage”, and “prevention of harm”. Previously, it used to take into account testostero­ne levels — below 10 nanomoles per litre ( nmol/ L) for women athletes who had transition­ed from male to female.

The eligibilit­y regulation­s of World Athletics still uses testostero­ne levels as an eligibilit­y determinan­t. DSD athletes need to keep their testostero­ne level to below 2.5 nmol/ L for at least 24 months before they become eligible to participat­e in any event. This is stricter than what it was before 2023, when there was a 5 nmols/ L restrictio­n for events ranging from 400 metres to a mile, and no restrictio­ns on other events.

FINA, the world swimming body, the I nternation­al Cycling Union, and the Internatio­nal Rugby Union have all institute d var ying degrees of bans on trans women athletes.

At the end of the day, there is still lots that is not known about the impact of testostero­ne on sporting performanc­e. Many question if the case of women who are born with higher levels of testostero­ne is any different from that of people with other genetic advantages — like Lebron James’ height or Michael Phelps’ massive fin- like hands.