The International Olympic Committee under president Thomas Bach has sought to work closely with the United Nations. Particularly when it comes to the rights and roles of women and girls.
So it was all the more noteworthy that the UN’s “Special Rapporteur” for, among other matters, women in sports took a plain shot Tuesday at the IOC for the controversy that erupted at the Paris Games in women’s boxing.
Some context:
A key IOC policy — the 2021-24 gender equality and inclusion plan — details 21 “objectives” rooted in five “focus areas” that, it says, are “unsurprisingly” aligned with the March 2020 UN Women ‘Sport for Generation Equality’ Initiative. In September 2023, the IOC renewed its deal with UN Women; it calls UN Women a “vital partner” in “creating positive social change and promoting gender empowerment through sport.”
In June, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, now running for the IOC presidency, was sent to address the UN General Assembly, where she asserted that sport can help further the UN Sustainable Development Goals, promote peace and prevent youth crime.
Since Lillehammer in 1994, the president of the UN General Assembly has made a “Solemn Appeal” for a symbolic Olympic Truce during the Games; since 2006, the Truce call has applied to the Paralympics, too. The IOC position to allow but a few Russians to Paris, and then as neutrals, includes in significant part the view of UN experts — in UN jargon, ‘Special Rapporteurs.’ On this matter, the IOC’s unequivocal declaration, on its website, declares: “This is about the UN guiding principles, and the IOC must rely on these Special Rapporteurs,” adding just one sentence later, “It is about the UN human rights system. And therefore, for the Olympic Movement, these UN Special Rapporteurs must be our guides in these efforts.”
What did one of these “guides” say Tuesday?
Jordan’s Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, delivering her report Tuesday at UN headquarters on women in sports // UN Web TV
Amid a 24-page report entitled, “Violence against women and girls in sports,” Jordan’s Reem Alsalem said what the International Boxing Association — which, it would appear, would now seem to be owed an apology by the IOC and, for that matter, much of the media worldwide — has consistently maintained:
“There are circumstances in which sex screenings are, however, necessary, legitimate and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports.
“For instance, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, female boxers had to compete against two boxers whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening.
“Current technology,” she went on, “enables a reliable sex screening procedure through a simple cheek swab that ensures non-invasiveness, confidentiality and dignity.”
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Yu Ting Lin of Chinese Taipei won gold in Paris. Each took chromosome tests at the 2022 and 2023 IBA women’s world championships — then, after the tests at the 2023 women’s worlds, were DQ’d. Why? The 2023 tests for each depict XY chromosomes — in the words of the lab analysis, “Male karyotype.” The IBA has said the 2023 tests are “absolutely identical” to 2022.
In early June 2023, the IBA notified the IOC there was something amiss in the Khelif and Lin files. The IOC has consistently sought to dismiss evidence of the 2022 and 2023 tests as unreliable because they came via IBA events.
3 Wire Sports remains the only outlet worldwide that has seen the 2022 and 2023 lab tests.
Later in June 2023, the IOC expelled the IBA from the Olympic system. The primary point of tension: the IBA president is Russian, Umar Kremlev.
At the Paris Olympics, the IOC, which having banished the IBA itself oversaw women’s boxing, said a passport reading ‘female’ would meet competition eligibility. Bach declared at a news conference late in the Games, referring to Khelif and Lin:
“We had so-called sex tests until 1999. Then science has told us that they are not reliable anymore. It does not work anymore as it used to work with regard to the chromosomes and with regard to other measurements. And we were also that these kinds of tests can be against human rights because they are too intrusive. The new system has been developed in great agreement with everybody and I think this is since 1999 or 2000 that this system is working and therefore our decision is very clear. Women must be allowed to take part in women’s competitions. The two are women.”
Responding to other Bach remarks on the topic at the same Paris news conference, Alsalem said at the time on Twitter/X she was “very concerned,” asserting women have a “fundamental right” to equality and non-discrimination, and asking this essential question:
Bach, in the snippet you can watch above from that news conference, said, “We have said from the beginning if somebody is presenting [to] us [a] scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it. We do not like this uncertainty ...”
Enter the UN report made final Tuesday and, to be clear, the exact thing the IBA told the IOC 13 or so months before the Paris Games: a simple chromosome test.
World Aquatics, for instance, uses such a test.
The real shock Tuesday was not that Alsalem — her formal title, readily evident in the Twitter/X bio, is “United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls” — came out with a report and presented it in New York. An advance unedited version has been out since September 10, the report itself since September 28.
The wonder is that given the close relationship between the IOC and UN, the report says what it does. Further, if there was effort to soften the final version, it apparently came to naught.
The language is unusually blunt. Particularly for two institutions given to working together closely.
In her remarks Tuesday, Alsalem proved forthright, too.
Speaking Thursday at UN headquarters, Alsalem said the far-reaching report “highlights the pervasive and systematic violence against women and girls in sport, driven by male-dominated cultures and stereotypes,” adding a moment later in reference to men in the female category, “The intrusion of males in female-only sports undermines integrity and safety.”
From the report:
“Policies implemented by international federations and national governing bodies, along with national legislation in some countries, allow males who identify as women to compete in female sports categories. In other cases, this practice is not explicitly prohibited and is thus tolerated in practice.”
The result? “According to information received, by 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.”
What should be done?
Again, from the report: “To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport.”
On this point, she said Thursday, “Human rights language and principles must continue to be consistent with science and facts …
“Sex must be understood in its ordinary meaning to mean biological sex. And conflating sex and gender identity throughout the creation of a legal sex category has been confusing and problematic.
A moment later, she said, referring to the report and the Paris Games, “I did not actually refer to the names of any athletes, whether in the Paris Olympics or otherwise. What happened at the Paris Olympics could have been avoided and can be avoided if, in the future, the IOC inclusion guidelines recognize that there should be no discrimination based on sex ...”