Yesterday, Eurosport broadcast the most dramatic illustration that the fight for sex-based rights is far more than a “culture war”. A biological man, Imane Khelif, punched a female boxer in the face harder than she’d ever been hit before. 2024 now marks the year that male violence against women became an Olympic sport.

Against the backdrop of Westminster’s war of words around gender ideology, it’s easy to forget that this subject has very real consequences. Angela Carini lasted just forty-six seconds in the ring against Imane Khelif — a biological male with a difference of sexual development which led to them being raised female. In less than a minute of fighting, Carini took a blow to the face that rendered her unable to breathe. In the years to come, the picture of the athlete sobbing on the floor after realising she was not strong enough to fight a man will bring shame to the Olympic games.  

Imane Khelif may not be transgender, but the appalling decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to let them compete is a product of the long march of gender ideology through international sporting institutions. After years of lobbying, the IOC has become an organisation that sanctions and celebrates male advantage in sport. 

It’s impossible to reconcile the IOC’s decision with their celebration that Paris 2024 is the first #GenderEqualOlympics. The committee’s “strategic framework on human rights” states they will always “encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels”. How can they ever hope to do this when they refuse to protect the female category? As Policy Exchange’s report, Levelling the playing field, demonstrated, when women are refused fair competition, they leave sport.

The International Olympic Committee stands as a textbook example of lobby capture. Over twenty years ago they ruled that transgender women were eligible for participation in the female category. In 2021 they produced a “framework” for transgender participation in sport which was condemned by thirty-eight scientists including two members of their own Medical and Scientific Commission.

The only reason that stories like this don’t dominate the Olympics, is because rules and eligibility criteria are usually set by International Sports Federations. Thankfully, after much pressure from senior politicians, most federations have sane and fair rules around transgender participation. 

The International Boxing Association was not different. They had clear rules about gender eligibility which led to Imane Khelif being disqualified from the women’s World Championships last year. However, because the association is controlled by the Russian Umar Kremlev, and based out of the country, they’ve been banned from the Olympics due to governance problems. Consequently, control over the sport of boxing has reverted to the IOC — laying publicly bare how captured and politicised their policies are. 

The institutional capture of the IOC is no better demonstrated than through their “Portrayal Guidelines” issued ahead of the Paris Games this year. In the 33-page document, commentators are warned that “a person’s sex category is not assigned based on genetics alone”. The media are told that terms such as “biologically male” are dehumanising and must not be used in coverage.

Stonewall, and organisations like them, have repeatedly lobbied the Olympic Committee to allow men into the female category. They have now won and this week’s scenes in the ring are the consequence. 

The Olympic Committee is fully aware of the advantage male competitors have against women

In the 1980s, women were cheated out of Olympic golds because athletes were pumped full of artificial testosterone in order to win medals. What is happening today is no different. In fact, it is worse, because there has been no attempt to hide this scandal. The Olympic Committee is fully aware of the advantage male competitors have against women. 

After the Moscow doping scandal, international outcry from politicians and journalists forced the IOC to change their rules and develop new tests. The same must now happen with gender. There is only one response to lobby capture – sustained pushback by politicians and officials on behalf of the public. The tide has only just begun to turn in Britian against transgender ideology. But this can be replicated in international sport. It is clear that the majority of people are appalled by the Olympic Commission’s decision on Khelif. Now we need senior officials to speak out.

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has already intervened. In a forceful statement she argued that “the contest was not a contest, it was not equal”. Donald Trump has similarly criticised the IOC, as has the first ever British Woman to win an Olympic gold in boxing. The IOC operates with huge amounts of independence and little accountability. The only way to force a policy change is through high profile political pushback.

Where is the statement from Downing Street? When will the Culture Secretary or the Minister for Sport intervene? This time it was Italy’s athlete who took the blow dealt by transgender ideology. But it could be a British athlete next. The Olympic Committee cares about its image. It doesn’t want to trigger a scandal that will define the games. If international leaders band together, these rules can be changed. And yet instead of outrage, there has been deafening silence from our ministers. 

Angela Carini has been left with a suspected broken nose. She spent years training for this event. Her hard work was stripped from her by one politicised decision from the Olympic Committee. Even the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls has recognised the fight for what it was: “physical and psychological Violence based on [her] sex”. It is now time that our leaders do the same.