Olympics – the thrill of victory, the agony of diversity
The Olympics’ governing body has a very serious public relations problem, and an even more serious athletic competitor fairness dilemma. And I’m not even sure the Olympic hierarchy understands how severe the issue is. But when my friends around the globe – who are on every side of the aisle – all complain to me, Olympic officials need to listen and make some better decisions.
If you’ve been on summer vacation and haven’t heard, at least two Olympic events this past week have caused earthshattering global disturbance, debate, division and even despair.
The first came in the Olympic’s opening ceremony which showcased DJ and producer Barbara Butch – an LGBTQ+ icon – flanked by drag artists and dancers in a scene that clearly mimicked and mocked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” not the feast of Dionysus. This scene was taken from the Bible in which Jesus was surrounded by His 12 Apostles and instituted the first Communion the night before His suffering and Crucifixion.
Immediate responses of disgust, disdain and condemnation (followed by a call to boycott the Olympics) came from millions on every social media platform followed by ecclesiastical and other leaders – including the French Catholic Church – and athletic champions and Olympic lovers all around the globe. The mockery and sacrilege were obvious.
Was it really necessary to use one of the most sacred rites and depictions in Christendom to demonstrate and even “push” LGBTQ+ diversity? Obviously not. And “we didn’t intend that” doesn’t justify such clear offensive oversight.
If the secular world can refrain from displaying images of Mohammed because Islam condemns them, can it not offer respect without defaming Jesus and offending Christians around the world?
Moreover, with a record low of people watching the summer Olympics already (only 35%, according to Gallup), did the Olympic overseers really overlook the likelihood of offending and alienating the largest religious population on the planet and further diminish its viewing audience?
A massive global boycott is exactly what resulted. And those who paid and pay the price are all the amazing Olympic athletes from every country in every sport who have worked for years with heart and perseverance to get to that stage of competition.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not homophobic. I believe in America we must embrace diversity. Indeed, America was founded upon it.
However, what happens when promoting diversity and inclusion denigrates and even desecrates others’ core convictions or religious practices?
Do DEI advocates, including those overseeing the Olympics, expect others to tolerate (and even embrace) their views while they denigrate others before a global audience? Justifying one’s freedom to act should not warrant stepping all over others who differ from you. Doesn’t diversity go both ways?
Democracy is not mob rule, and yet so often modern Americans (and those in other western countries) interpret it that way: “If you don’t believe as we do, we will force our convictions upon you, using social, economic, legal, emotional and any other type of pressure until you consent in agreement and conformity.”
(I encourage you subscribe and read the latest edition of the Whistleblower, “America’s All-Out Religious War,” which details many other anti-religious incidents in society like the above.)
The second Olympic fracture last week erupted when the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was deemed to have male XY chromosomes (be biologically male) though registered as a woman, won a fight in just 46 seconds in the 66-kilogram women’s division against Italy’s Angela Carini.
Within 30 seconds, Carini was hit by Khelif in the face with brute force. Her nose started bleeding from what later was discovered was a broken nose. In her history of fighting, she said, she “never felt [a] punch like this.”
She went to her cornermen to call off the fight, decrying the competition afterwards as an absolutely “unfair” matchup.
After the judge announced victory to Khelif, Carini bowed to her knees in tears, not believing what just occurred and that her Olympic dreams were dashed to the wind by a man.
“I got into the ring to fight,” she said, via Italy’s ANSA. “I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high.”
Carini, who is as tough as nails and a supreme woman’s fighter, was willing to step into the ring with this Algerian boxer despite all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days, her coach explained.
Come to find out, “Khelif fought under a firestorm of controversy regarding a failed gender eligibility test in 2023, in which he ‘was disqualified during the 2023 World Championships sanctioned by the International Boxing Association. The organization said Khelif, and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting failed to meet gender eligibility standards,'” according to FOX News.
International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev explained the decision at the time, according to Russia’s Tass News Agency. Reuters also reported that Khelif tested positive for having high levels of testosterone.
“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition,” Kremlev said.
I knew when I saw Carini’s genuine fear and tears, and what appeared as a winning-smugness of Khelif, I had to say something as a world fighting champion.
Soon after the fight, Riley Gaines – a 12-time All-American swimmer who describes herself as a “leader defending women’s single-sex spaces” – posted on X, “Men don’t belong in women’s sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini.” (Riley also called the opening ceremony a “Satanic display.”)
Tesla, X and SpaceX owner Elon Musk, who first voiced opposition to the Olympic opening ceremony scenes by saying it was “extremely disrespectful to Christians,” secondly stood up for Carini by agreeing with Riley Gaines post, replying, “Absolutely!
And I think J.K. Rowling’s opine on X hit the proverbial nail on the head when it came to the fight between Carini and Khelif, posting the photo above and writing: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”
Even closer to home was the outrage of a former Olympic boxing champion and two-time gold medalist Claressa Shields, who has won titles in three different weight classes and the current undisputed junior middleweight champion, and the unified middleweight champion. (Women’s boxing is divided between 17 weight classes, from heavyweight to atomweight.)
Shields immediately wrote on X: “So they got men fighting against women in the Olympics boxing ! I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that! That is so heartbreaking to the women who have to have their dreams ruined by a man. Sad asf!”
The day after the Olympic boxing debacle, Claressa also hit the airways to voice her professional and personal opposition: “It is very hard to qualify for the Olympics. You have to go through so many different international tournaments, country tournaments to even make it to the Olympics. So, for me, I can understand [Carini’s] devastation. But it shouldn’t be ruined due to a man. And I think that the Olympics definitely dropped the ball.”
“It’s just unfair. I just can’t believe that it’s being done, and I just couldn’t imagine it happening to me,” Shields said.
Even trans Caitlyn Jenner, who won the 1976 men’s decathlon as Bruce Jenner, said in an interview on FOX News: “This issue has hurt the Olympic Games so much. … Everyone’s talking about it.”
Jenner agreed that Khelif should not be in a women’s category: “I hate to be so downright rough … but we have to have rules and regulations, and it has to come down to DNA,” explaining that those with XY chromosomes should be in a men’s competition.
“I think the Olympic committee did absolutely the wrong thing by letting [Khelif] compete,” Jenner added on X. “Shame on the IOC for not protecting the integrity of women’s sports, and shame on the IOC for not protecting the safety of women’s sports.”
“A 2020 study by the British Journal of Medicine showed that even male athletes who are ‘transitioning’ retain their competitive edge [at least a 12% advantage] against women even after two years of taking estrogen. Currently, trans-identifying biological males can compete on women’s teams in the NCAA and Olympics after only one year of being on estrogen,” the Heritage Foundation reported.
I (Chuck) don’t pretend to have all the Olympic or athletic answers for diversity and inclusion without causing further divisions and global disturbance. But I do know that in yesteryear’s generations, like those from my 103-year-old mother’s Greatest Generation, had a whole lot more respect for those they differed with. They agreed to disagree agreeably, rather than spew vitriol and make various threats to get their way as so many do today.
And as far as actual fighting goes: As a six-time undefeated middleweight world karate champion myself, we always competed within the boundaries of those who were in our class, including gender, weight, athletic abilities, belt degrees, etc.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has repeatedly said that if your passport says you are a woman, you can compete in women’s sports; but that criteria can no longer suffice our world of inclusion and diversity.
However, according to Dr. Dr. Bradley Anawalt, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, science has its limitations in this dogfight over female and male gender identification and verification.
While I don’t doubt that, it still seems to me most of the gender debate in athletics today can be settled by some upgraded form of chromosome or DNA testing. Of course, the mistakes and polarizations in the athletic history of gender identification and profiling will have to be avoided as an upgraded form of testing is established. Advanced neurobiology studies might even help.
As a general rule, those who have proven XY chromosomes fight in male competitions while those who have XX chromosomes fight in female competitions; even intersex individuals often lean one way or the other. Variance to these (however miniscule to the majority) will have to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Even Reem Alsalem, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, echoed the need for further gender testing of some type: “We know that there are simple, efficient, dignified ways of testing sex … that are not invasive, that are cheap and that are reliable.
She explained, “So I think that will be one of the first things really to come back, why is that such a problem, if it can particularly resolve an issue and if it can allay fears, and concerns which are very valid. So that would be my question really to the IOC and … I have, in fact, discussed with the IOC in preparation for my report – the inclusivity and diversity guidelines.”
Alsalem will deliver to the U.N. General Assembly in October a report that will have a focus on violence faced by women in sport. Please read the Heritage Foundation’s submission as well.
I’ll say it one more time: The Olympics’ governing body has a very serious public relations problem, and an even more serious athletic competitor fairness dilemma.
Bottom line, if the Olympic authorities continue to promote sexual diversity and inclusion over fairness in international athletic competition, this I guarantee: They will continue to experience the thrill of victory and the agony of diversity.
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