The controversy surrounding Imane Khelif’s right to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games has ignited a firestorm of ignorance and bigotry reminiscent of the worst transphobic attacks. Despite not being a transgender athlete, Khelif faces the same baseless accusations and prejudice so often used against them, revealing a deep-rooted misogyny that undermines women’s sports.
Every attack on trans athletes’ right to play is based on the fundamental misunderstanding that women are weaker, less athletic, and less capable. Both transgender and cisgender women come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of athletic ability. The same can also be said of men—and it is notable that no such discourse exists about the right of transgender men to compete in men’s sports.
The International Olympic Committee approved Kheli’s right to fight following numerous medical examinations, ensuring she adhered to the guidelines that the IOC has put in place for every athlete competing in the games. These medical examinations exist to ensure that all Olympians meet eligibility requirements.
Olympians are gifted athletes who compete at the highest level. Some athletes, like Michael Phelps, have abnormally long limbs and larger lung capacity, which provide him with a competitive edge that, combined with his strenuous training regimen, elevated him to the highest level of his sport. No one disputes his triumph in men’s swimming as anything but honorable. Similarly, no one argues that Simone Biles’ naturally petite and muscular frame makes her wins any less valid when she defeats women who are larger, less flexible, and less muscular than she. That is seen as a testament to her natural ability and training.
Controversy only arises when we see a woman who is less petite and stronger than her opponent, and people are quick to assert that no woman could naturally be that strong, muscular, or tall. There are tall, muscular women in the world; some of them happen to be transgender. That doesn’t make them Olympians. Olympians are an elite group of highly trained athletes who have sacrificed everything for their sport. Imane Khelif is as gifted an athlete now as she was when she was a young girl. To say otherwise is misogyny, plain and simple.
— from a MassEquality press release
More: massequality.org
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