[Cherie]

Alesser-known fact about Daley Thompson is that he is not merely Britain’s finest ever Olympian, but a crucial figure in agitating against the injustice of biological males competing in women’s sport. Long before these Paris Games were scandalised by sex tests revealing two boxers as having XY chromosomes, the male pattern, he was warning of the gathering storm. Quite apart from featuring in a campaign film last year called The Inclusion Delusion, he wrote in a report by think tank Policy Exchange: “We risk alienating a generation of female athletes if we cannot promise them fair and safe play – from the grassroots to the top.”

t 66, Thompson could be forgiven for ducking the toxic blowback this debate unleashes. And yet he feels strongly enough to rebuke the International Olympic Committee for neglecting to protect the female category, prioritising inclusion over fairness. As an illustration, he points to the 33-page “Portrayal Guidelines” document that the IOC have issued to journalists in Paris, advising against the use of such terms as “born male” or “biologically male” on the grounds that such labels are “dehumanising” and constitute “problematic language”.

“You only have to read the statement,” he says. “I don’t understand why they, as the world governing body, don’t take a stance. Instead, they tell everybody else to take a stance and then they chip away at the sides. I don’t understand that.”

I point out how Martina Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon champion and a steadfast figure in upholding the integrity of female sport, has accused the IOC of Orwellian tactics by waging a “1984 version of war on women”. “Martina knows this inside out,” Thompson nods. “I would agree with that. I would have thought that the defence of women’s sport should be very high on the IOC’s list.”

Sadly, it is anything but. In their insistence that womanhood can be determined by passport status alone, the IOC have created the astonishing situation where two biologically male boxers, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, are now guaranteed Olympic medals in the women’s competition. They were disqualified from last year’s world boxing championship by the International Boxing Association, who said the DNA of each fighter “was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes”. Neither appealed against the findings.

I meet Thompson at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, before the eruption of the boxing scandal. But he leaves no doubt as to his views on the IOC’s spinelessness, presenting their failure to ensure a level playing field for women as an extension of their feeble stance on state-sponsored doping. “The IOC, in their different forms over the last 40 or 50 years, have been negligent in their duty towards the one thing they should be looking after, and that’s sport,” he argues. “They allowed the Eastern bloc countries to get away with it in the Seventies and Eighties. They could have done things about China. They could have done more. They should have done more.”

Having seen the convulsions triggered by the IOC’s gospel of inclusion at all costs, Thompson suggests his great friend Sebastian Coe as the ideal candidate to lead the Olympic movement once Thomas Bach steps down next year. Unlike Bach, Coe has shown decisive leadership on the most vexed of questions. In the women’s 800 metre final at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Caster Semenya took gold in a race where all three medallists had differences in sexual development. In response, Coe introduced a policy where any such athletes would have to reduce their testosterone levels to race as women.

“He would make a good president of the IOC, because I truly believe he has the athletes’ interests at heart,” Thompson says. “He does the things he thinks will be beneficial to them. Plus, he has had issues that nobody else has had to deal with. And he seems to have found a good way through them.”

Thompson has been drawn into his febrile sphere through his enduring bond with Sharron Davies. They dated briefly in the late Seventies and have remained friends ever since, with Davies persuading him to champion the cause closest to her heart. While Thompson took Olympic decathlon gold in Moscow in 1980, Davies had to settle for silver in swimming’s 400m individual medley – beaten by Petra Schneider of the former East Germany, who later admitted to having doped. For her, the spectacle of women being wrongly denied medals cuts deep. Fortunately, her ex-boyfriend has not taken much persuading to lend his support

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainm...4d03f99f&ei=15

[The Slim Reaper]

No matter where you stand on this issue, I think everyone will appreciate this.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

No matter where you stand on this issue, I think everyone will appreciate this.

Brilliant

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

No matter where you stand on this issue, I think everyone will appreciate this.

……I liked the impersonation…(…even though The Sopranos isn’t a series I’ve seen so I don’t know how accurate to the characters…)…it’s still easy to get the vein of it, though…

…just being more serious, though…in general…(..because online there has also for real sometimes been that vein of criticism of Angelina in support of Imane…and I hate that ‘team one’ or ‘team another’, type thing, I’m sure that Italy are as proud of Angelina as Algeria are of Imane…

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Ammi

……I liked the impersonation…(…even though The Sopranos isn’t a series I’ve seen so I don’t know how accurate to the characters…)…it’s still easy to get the vein of it, though…

…just being more serious, though…in general…(..because online there has also for real sometimes been that vein of criticism of Angelina in support of Imane…and I hate that ‘team one’ or ‘team another’, type thing, I’m sure that Italy are as proud of Angelina as Algeria are of Imane…

It's a great show, you should definitely watch it.

The whole situation is unfortunate, but the way Angelina created this story was appalling petulance. She embarrassed herself, and threw that embarrassment on to her opponent. It's right that she has been criticised, but that's all she received - a bit of criticism. Imane had her life turned upside down. Now that Angelina has apologised, that should be the end of the whole sorry situation and all parties can move on.

[Niamh.]

Soprano's

[Alf]

Motorcyclist who identifies as a Bicyclist sets new cycling World record.

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Alf

Motorcyclist who identifies as a Bicyclist sets new cycling World record.

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[Maru]

Originally Posted by Zizu

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Beautiful and Brave. Everyone likes trains.

[Jordan.]

Delighted for her

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Jordan.

Delighted for her

Bollox


A supposedly mediocre, limited boxer completely dominated last year’s WORLD CHAMPION to win Algeria’s first ever Olympic medal



Thats the equivalent of Jake Paul beating Dmitry Bivol


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[Glenn.]

She earned it

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Glenn.

She earned it

That's definitely up for debate imo.

[Liam-]

The best woman clearly won

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Liam-

The best woman clearly won

May the best man win ..

( if only she was called May)

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[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Zizu

May the best man win ..

( if only she was called May)

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Tbf she's not a man.

But she definitely needs to be sent up to Middleweight, to make her matches more even.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

Tbf she's not a man.

But she definitely needs to be sent up to Middleweight, to make her matches more even.

She has the Y chromosome. Biological women don't. I don't care how she lives her life, I have no Ill will against her, but she doesn't belong in womens boxing.

Let's hope at the next Olympics in LA they get a handle on this or we'll have biological men in every women's sport scooping up gold medals and some men cheering them on.

Still no word about people with xx chromosomes trying to get into men's sports. Why is that...?

[Cherie]

I'm more delighted for Katarina Johnson Thompson, a true example of a woman perserving in sport, 4th Olympics, and missing out on Gold by a whisker



Well done Katarina

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Livia

She has the Y chromosome. Biological women don't. I don't care how she lives her life, I have no I'll will against her, but she doesn't belong in womens boxing.

Let's hope at the next Olympics in LA they get a handle on this or we'll have biological men in every women's sport scooping up gold medals and some men cheering them on.

Still no word about people with xx chromosomes trying to get into men's sports. Why is that...?

Very perceptive !


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[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Livia

She has the Y chromosome. Biological women don't. I don't care how she lives her life, I have no Ill will against her, but she doesn't belong in womens boxing.

Let's hope at the next Olympics in LA they get a handle on this or we'll have biological men in every women's sport scooping up gold medals and some men cheering them on.

Still no word about people with xx chromosomes trying to get into men's sports. Why is that...?

Khelif's situation is more complicated than the Trans issue due to her being Intersex, she might ironically get disadvantaged if you put her in the men's Boxing.

The best compromise would be to move her up a weight.

[Zizu]

I don’t understand how she always looks taller , broader and more muscular if they are all in the same weight class - unless she’s a weight bully

Nothing says female to me at all certainly not her stance nor gait or face


Weight bullies explanations below

The fact that a fighter can rehydrate and gain a large weight advantage prior to the fight is an intrinsic pitfall in the "day before" weigh-in system. As long as the loophole exists, guys will take advantage of it. The only way to avoid it is mandatory "day of fight" weigh-ins with an allotted amount of weight a fighter is allowed to put back on, or we go back to same day weigh-ins, which posed enough of a dehydration risk that they were done away with in the first place. "Day before" weigh-ins are perceived to be the lesser of two evils really.

"Weight bullies" are really just guys who are taking advantage of the weigh-in system's deficiency. They are, however, participating in a sport where every possible advantage is extremely valuable, as long as it can be legally obtained. While we as fans want to see these guys compete on an even playing field, in boxing that is definitely not always the case, or even a viable option.

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[user104658]

Originally Posted by Zizu

I don’t understand how she always looks taller , broader and more muscular if they are all in the same weight class - unless she’s a weight bully

Skinny legs (by under-training) + lower body fat percentage achievable with higher testosterone. Females generally can't retain muscle without retaining body fat, men can.

[edit] Not that I'm calling her a man but it is a result of the high T and apparent male puberty.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Soldier Boy

Skinny legs (by under-training) + lower body fat percentage achievable with higher testosterone. Females generally can't retain muscle without retaining body fat, men can.

[edit] Not that I'm calling her a man but it is a result of the high T and apparent male puberty.

Which should disqualify them from the female category

[UserSince2005]

Must be so proud to punch so many women in the face. The gold should be given to the poor Italian princess who got smashed up.

[Cherie]

Meh, mostly men who normally don't support women, celebrating this achievement....no thanks