‘Women can have high testosterone. That doesn’t make them men, or transgender’
Since last week, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has been at the centre of a ‘gender row’. Khelif has had to face accusations that include her of ‘not being a woman’. Amit Chaudhary spoke with UK-based athlete rights advocate & executive director, Humans of Sport, Payoshni Mitra, who has been at the forefront of the fight against sex testing policies in sports to declutter the mess surrounding the issue. Excerpts:
Your immediate thoughts when you heard about Khelif?
My first reaction was, ‘Not again’. See, it's not about gender. There was no proper test. Everything is speculation. Sometimes misinformation is being shared by people in powerful positions. We really need to question all of that and see where this information is coming from, what’s fuelling this controversy? Is there any real basis to it? And with this one as well, there wasn't any complete medical assessment there.
It’s important that people making such claims first see the video [of the bout]. It's not a knockout. There’s nothing disproportionate there. Khelif has been beaten by nine other women on the circuit. She competed against an Irish boxer in the 2022 World Championships and lost. The Irish boxer has openly spoken in support. It's really important we have these counter arguments and narratives out there.
What are the general misconceptions around gender in sports?
Take the case of Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting [both of whom failed an unspecified eligibility test to compete in the World Championships See the kind of misinformation that is being
