The official at the centre of the Olympic boxing gender row was one of Sir Keir Starmer’s best men at his wedding. The Telegraph has more.
Mark Adams, the spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has known the Prime Minister since the two men were at school together.
Mr. Adams expressed concerns earlier this week about a “witch hunt” against boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, who have previously failed gender eligibility tests.
On Thursday the Italian boxer Angela Carini was forced to abandon a fight against Khelif at the games in Paris, claiming she had been hit so hard by her opponent that she feared for her life.
The IOC faced widespread condemnation for placing Carini, who had a suspected broken nose, in a position of danger.
Responding to Khelif’s victory on Thursday, Mr. Adams told reporters: “Testosterone is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone which is in what would be called ‘male levels’ and still be women, and still compete as a woman.
“So this panacea, this idea that you do one test for testosterone, that’s not the case I’m afraid. But each sport needs to deal with its issues, they know their sports and their disciplines the best and they need to target and tailor I should say the testing and so on.
“But I hope we’re all agreed we’re not calling for people to go back to the bad old days of sex testing, which was a terrible thing to do and I’m sure we all agree that’s not the way forward in this situation.”
He went on to insist “this is not a transgender issue” and criticise “misreporting” of the row, which has cast a shadow over the Paris Olympics.
Khelif and Yu-Ting were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March 2023 after failing gender tests. However, the IOC has different rules from the International Boxing Association. …
In 2014, Mr. Adams referred to Sir Keir as “my old mate” as he congratulated him on his selection as the Labour candidate for St. Pancras and Holborn at the 2015 general election.
“Over the moon that my old mate Keir Starmer has been selected… He’ll be a real campaigner for constituents,” he said.
When Sir Keir was subsequently elected on May 7th, Mr. Adams wrote: “Congrats to a great bloke.”
He was one of Sir Keir’s four best men.
Worth reading in full.
The details of Khelif’s intersex condition remain unclear. It appears she was raised as a girl (and is anatomically female). However, there has been no denial of (or appeal against) the IBA claim that she is genetically male (with XY chromosomes). WalesOnline explains the context:
Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting have been cleared to compete in the women’s boxing in Paris, having been disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships in India for failing to meet the IBA’s eligibility criteria.
Speaking last March to Russia’s Tass news agency, IBA President Umar Kremlev said Khelif and Yu-ting were “posing” as women ahead of the 2023 world championships.
“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues [by] posing as women,” Kremlev said.
“According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”
The relationship between the IBA and the IOC is strained to say the least, with the IBA having seized on the two boxers’ presence in Paris to criticise the IOC.
The IBA issued a statement this week in which it claimed both boxers did not have a “testosterone examination” in India last year but were “subject to a separate and recognised test”. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential,” refusing to explain or elaborate.
The IBA is controlled by President 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 disregarded IOC guidelines by allowing Russian fighters to compete at last year’s World Championships under the Russian flag, leading some countries – including Great Britain – to boycott the competition.
The governing body then disqualified Khelif only after the Algerian defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva during the tournament. …
The reason the 25-year-old can compete at the Olympics is because the IBA doesn’t run the boxing at the Games. It was stripped of that status last year after the IBA failed to meet set reforms following its 2019 suspension over governance issues and alleged corruption.
Boxing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in which Khelif also competed, was organised by the IOC amid concerns over the IBA’s finance, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging. A separate breakaway organisation – World Boxing – was formed after failing to oust Kremlev from power.
World Boxing hopes to take over the status of running boxing at the Olympic games in 2028.
Amy Broadhurst, who defeated Khelif at the 2022 Women’s World Championships, posted on social media:
Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born and that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all.
It’s notable, however, that Khelif has not been defeated since 2022. Whether or not her condition is within her “control” is not of course relevant to questions of fairness, safety and eligibility in women’s sport.
What is surely clear is that the IOC needs to come up with transparent rules that are widely regarded as fair for women competing against one another. Intersex conditions and disorders of sexual development will undoubtedly present the most difficult cases, particularly where you have people who are, say, anatomically female and raised as such but with male genetics and testosterone levels. But if women’s sport is to be fair, safe and credible it has to be protected from male-bodied competitors – and that will include taking some difficult decisions affecting those with intersex conditions.
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I’m not clear on what’s so terrible about the ‘sex test’. Here’s a sports scientist who wrote a thread on it and describes it as a useful screening tool;
”I have some thoughts on this, if I may. First, the cheek swab for those not in the know is a simple and non-invasive test that allows them to distinguish between people who are XX and XY, by scraping cells off the inside of the cheek, and checking under microscope. However, the problem for sport is that when it’s applied this test in the past, it has produced some controversies. Here’s an account from one athlete on their failed test, having previously passed it: https://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2805%2967841-5/fulltext… What this, and other cases (Ewa Klobukowska) remind us is that “tests” are not perfect, and this has important implications. However, sport can quite easily work around this, simply by understanding that the cheek swab should not be thought of as a test, but rather a “SCREEN”. The difference is that you don’t act on the screen result. Instead, you treat the swab result as a screen that indicates either no action, or a need for further testing. And the further testing is where you do more sophisticated assessments, where you know that tests done in series will confirm, 100%, what the biological picture is.
An athlete may ‘fail’ the initial swab, but if there’s no case to answer (not male) then subsequent tests will quickly establish that, and on you go. If the swab SCREEN was correct, then the TESTS confirm it, and everyone is on solid footing, with a proper diagnosis & insight.
So the point is that Judy Murray is right, but with that small but I think very important nuance. This is the way to go, because if the women’s category is to have integrity, then it has to be regulated, and that requires measurement (boxing collapses without weigh-ins for ex) And if this ‘control’ is needed (it is), the only question should be which is the best method? Do we rely on subjective judgments & visual inspection: “Who passes as a woman?” Safe to say that’s a far worse approach than a molecular test, impersonally and anonymously assessed.”
https://x.com/Scienceofsport/status/1819332741105606960
“I’m not clear on what’s so terrible about the ‘sex test’.”
Crocodile Dundee had the right idea.
From the article
“The details of Khelif’s intersex condition remain unclear. It appears she was raised as a girl (and is anatomically female).”
There are images on x where there is a distinct package evident in the shorts. I’m fairly used to photo editing and the images do not look edited (or at least someone editing them wouldn’t have chosen to do it that way because there are easier ways than creating the kind of effect evident in the photos). So maybe he is a hermaphrodite. Possible I guess.
But these days I suggest it’s more likely the authorities/MSM will simply lie to take the cowards way out of a tricky situation.
Here’s the other one who fought today. It seems the woman fared better and got to 5 rounds before she was defeated;
”Biological male boxer pummels WOMAN and defeats her at the Paris Olympics, leaving her on the verge of tears.
Lin-Yu-Ting was previously barred from the 2023 women’s boxing World Championship for having male XY chromosomes.”
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1819372558011232766
Bit of an adjustment of the old ‘lady balls’ there, was it?
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1819357117695869141
I’m not clear on what’s so terrible about the ‘sex test’.
Boilerplate woke pseudoargument: It’s asserted that something which used to be done in the past is very bad using emotionalized wording but without backing the asssertion up with anything. Faeser (German home secretary) uses the same template to ‘argue’ against the existence of German people: We will not go back to bad old days when Germanness was ethnically defined.
I’m sometimes wondering who’s programming all these people.
Mr. Adams expressed concerns earlier this week about a “witch hunt” against boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, who have previously failed gender eligibility tests.
So, a man posing as a woman puts a female boxer’s life in danger, and an Establishment cretin, instead of concerning himself with the safety of the woman, talks about “witch hunts”. This is the same degenerate sensibility that allows the ruling group to label people concerned about child murders as “far-right”.
From the article it seems the Algerian boxer is an actual example of ‘intersex’. As I understand it, a very rare condition. As such, describing this person as ‘Trans’ is unfair. It’s also unfair that an intersex person should compete against a female person in a physical prowess sport.
Quite how do we square this particular circle? Whatever we choose will be unfair to someone. It seems to me that a third group of competition in addition to male and female might help – but then again, labelling someone as ‘other’ is highly contentious.
Maybe not the best idea , asking how to square this particular circle , given the topic in hand ,oops , two innuendo,s for the price of one
I think the solution is pretty simple. Even in these rare cases, anyone born with xy chromosomes must be considered male and, as such, must compete in the male events. That approach places the risk on the individual wishing to compete, and removes the risk from others who are being put unfairly at risk (and without a say in the matter) i.e. women. If the individual wishing to compete is uncomfortable with the risk of competing against men then they can choose to not compete. Harming feelings must come secondary to actual physical harm. We’re being lorded over by absolute morons.
I have no idea of the answer but are our chromosomes determined definitively at birth or can they change/develop/mutate/whatever during our life time? If definitive at birth, your solution is indeed simple and easy to enforce.
They are.
As this is not that simple, I’m trying to summarize the article about this Mogwai posted a link to elsewhere:
Sex chromosomes are determined at procreation time. There are two of them called X and Y. Women are normally XX while men are normally XY. All human embryos are technically initially hermaphroditic as they all have the two ‘systems’ which develop into either male (sperm producing) or female sex (egg producing) organs. Actual development of the embryo is based on certain hormones being present or not present and the reaction of the body to these. A gene which is usually associated with the Y chromosome causes male development. In rare case, it can alsp be present on an X chromosome, leading to development of XX men (the opposite is also possible). Lastly, dependent on yet other genes, bodies may not react to hormonal stimulation as they should, for instance, causing some people who ought to be proper XY males to develop female bodies instead. On top of this already complicated situation come more possible mutations such as XXY males and X0 (no idea what that’s going to become).
The important bit about this is that objectively classifying every individual as either male or female is impossible, however, that’s not a problem for the vast majority of cases where this classification is trivial. For the case in question, the images in the Wales Online article should answer that: The Algerian has doubtlessly the arms and legs of a man, regardless of his/her sex organs, while the Italian women doesn’t.
XX or XY is determined at conception.
If “it” is intersex “it” has no business participating in a female boxing competition.
Females are not intersex.
Is there anything to stop females competing in male competitions? Other than the fact that in the vast majority of cases they wouldn’t qualify at the top levels because of their lower performance? Although we label them as ‘Male’ competitions they are actually ‘Open’ competitions. So with female competitions for people who are definitely female and an Open competition for everyone else there is no need to create any further subdivisions.
Completely agree. And with regards to this boxing situation all I’ll say is that if any men are totally fine with seeing this happen to females in sport, particularly at such a elite level, then they evidently don’t have a very high regard for the opposite sex do they? This is both a safety and an ethics issue. There’s the other ‘intersex’, or whatever they are, boxer due to fight, but I’m not sure when. A Taiwanese person. So it’ll be interesting to see if that match lasts more than 1 minute. I think a Hungarian woman is due to fight the Algerian next at the weekend.
As for what to do about this whole mess, the only thing I can think of to bring back fairness and safety to women’s sports is to go ahead and implement this ‘sex test’, as described above. To my mind, going by somebody’s sex chromosomes and calling it on that basis is surely the most simplistic way of doing things, and gets rid of any ambiguity, just in case testosterone levels are somehow disputed. Although there’d surely be something very wrong if a man and woman have similar testosterone levels.
Mark Adams’, mate of Starmer, opined “their passports say they’re female so they’re eligible–” was Head of Communications at the WEF prior to his IOC appointment. Before the WEF gig he was a team leader at ITN/ITV. A right ‘piece of work’ as they say.
Comrade’s together then !
Yep, all part of the same firkin club.
I’ll bet you any money that if somebody asked Adams ”what’s a woman?” he’d fail that litmus test of common sense in a heartbeat, and out himself as the epic Woketard that he evidently is. Anyone who can’t describe what a woman is without getting all tongue-tied by political correctness shouldn’t be in such a job, or any role of authority at all actually. You’re a moron, simple as.
Meanwhile, regarding testosterone levels;
”How many people do not understand testosterone?
Women do not have male levels of testosterone.
No, women with PCOS do not have male levels of testosterone.
Female range .5-2.4 nmol/L
PCOS – still never above 5
Male 10-30 nmol/ L.
They are so far apart they don’t show up well on the same assay tests.
It takes TESTES to have male levels.”
https://x.com/KimJonesICONS/status/1819224651911880898
When a person is described as ‘intersex’ they belong to approximately 0.01% of the population. Being intersex does not create a third gender or blur any lines between the 1.2 billion year-old binary that is ‘sex’. Intersex or not, one either produces large gametes (women) or small gametes (men).
”One of the boxers at the centre of a widening gender scandal at the Paris Olympics won her opening bout on Friday to reach the quarter-finals.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting beat Sitora Turdibekova from Uzbekistan on a unanimous points decision in the women’s 57kg class.
Lin, 28, is at the centre of a storm over the eligibility of women boxers, along with Imane Khelif, after the Algerian beat her Italian opponent Angela Carini in just 46 seconds on Thursday.
Both Khelif and Lin were disqualified from the 2023 world championships in New Delhi run by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after failing to meet “eligibility criteria”.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is overseeing the boxing tournament in Paris, has cleared the boxers to compete in the French capital.
The IBA said in a statement the athletes “did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test”.
However the “specifics” of this test “remain confidential”, the IBA said.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the Olympic body’s eligibility criteria was based on the gender indicated on the boxers’ passports, but acknowledged that it’s “not a black and white issue”.
https://today.rtl.lu/sport/international/a/2219750.html
Yes the Liberal Progressive group think people all hang out together. Miliband was probably at Klaus Schwab’s daughters wedding as best man, or something of the sort.
Perhaps a quick punch “below the belt” might establish the bona fides of such a boxer.
“White Woman tears should be studied ….they’re so ridiculous.”
says the female Nigerian “celebrity doctor” Shola.
And the latest news says that the real female Italian boxer “wants to apologise” to the Muslim man with male chromosomes who says he was “raised as a female”, which means nothing biologically. No one has mentioned whether his “born female” claim has ever been medically verified. (Translation: Globalists persuaded the Italian lady to kneel.)
Dr Shola spews ‘white woman tears should be studied’ in savage Angela Carini rant after Imane Khelif victory (gbnews.com)
Nigerian Dr. Shola, who also sneered at Lucy Letby’s “White Woman’s Tears”, has gained fame and fortune by complaining about “suffering” from racism and presenting herself as a true African woman fighting for her African people.
And yet she refused to marry a fellow African, but held out for a White Man, with whom she now has three children. Perhaps she is also aiming for high political office in the West, like so many other Third World ethnics who have refused to marry their own. Curiouser and curiouser…
It’s like those Hollywood celebrities with “designer children”, only these want “designer spouses”.
Off-T
United States debt at 35 trillion dollars. There must be a crash on the way.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-national-debt-tops-35-trillion/5864282
I don’t think that women should be boxing at all – it just seems really wrong to me. I do, however, support men’s boxing for the following reasons:
There will always be men who want to prove themselves as “the hardest” or want to know who “the hardest” one is. If boxing were banned, the fighting would continue underground but without the control and medical oversight that currently takes place in boxing. As a pragmatist, therefore, I reluctantly conclude it is better that it isn’t banned, but that it is controlled by suitably competent boards of control.
Well and bravely said, especially these days! I agree completely that women should not be boxing at all, or bullfighting, or in combat roles in the military, or countless other things that are better left to men.
If the demand is there, both from a participant and an audience/viewer perspective, then why on earth not? It’s as legitimate a sport as any of the other contact sports, such as the various martial arts, in which women partake. If you start wanting to ban women from particular sports then it becomes a slippery slope and you’d have a very hard time justifying your stance because it obviously leads to discrimination based on blatant sexism. You don’t have to like it, nobody’s forcing you to tune in on the telly or buy a ticket to attend live, but women are as entitled to box as the men.
But the point at hand here is that they should absolutely be paired with other women, for obvious reasons. So if women want to batter each other in a ring under the supervision of a referee then let them get on with it. There’s only so much damage a woman can do to another woman anyway, given they wear the head gear for protection and they’re limited as to how much upper body strength they can naturally build. Contrast that though with getting whacked in the face by a man, even if he’s got ”female” written on his passport.
It doesn’t float my boat, but boxing generally doesn’t, same as various other sports. But as per the article the woke mind virus has infiltrated women’s events and now ladies are getting battered ( or beaten in a race etc ) by men instead. This isn’t what you sign up for as a professional athlete having trained day in, day out for years. It’s unfair, and in many sporting events, unsafe too.
The dangerous nonsense will stop if all female athletes (XX chromosomes) walk out and refuse to participate in the Olympics or any other “sporting” event.
Hit the woke, social manipulators where it hurts them the most: in the wallet.
The problem with this is that they’ll hit themselves in the wallet first. While this recipe may sound simple, it boils down to the choice between killing one’s sporting career for bad or facing the risk of being beaten by an only ‘financially female’ competitor, ie, someone whose position in the women’s team has been assured by greasing the right wheels in the background.
This can alsos be arrayed such that it can immediately be transformed into the usual woke -ism discussion: Buying African NOCs and training African genetic freaks is probably not exactly expensive. And the moment someone points out what’s going on here, the the Racism! attack dogs (like this ‘Dr’ Shola) can be unleashed: How dare you cry, white woman, just because an Arabian man gave you a black eye!
Finally, for a really rounded effort, more greasing of wheels can make the victim have public a Saul to Paul conversion, as has happened here.
Poor old Tamara Press her record would be unblemished