A day after conservatives voiced outrage that an Algerian boxer, who previously failed a gender test, was allowed to fight in the women’s tournament at the Olympics, CNN Newsroom guest host Paula Reid and sports analyst Christine Brennan rushed to defend the boxer against “an avalanche of misinformation.” However, all the duo could do on Friday was point out some irrelevant facts, like that Imane Khelif is not transgender and the International Boxing Association being run by a Vladimir Putin stooge.
As part of a tease of the segment, Reid hyped, “the IOC, coming to the defense of a boxer at the center of an avalanche of misinformation.”
Half an hour later, she reported, “An Italian boxer quit just 46 seconds into a match against her Algerian opponent after taking an especially hard punch to the head. Now, some critics say the Algerian boxer should not have been allowed to compete after she was disqualified from last year’s world championships.”
She then introduced Brennan, “Christine, this is a highly controversial topic, getting a lot of traction on social media, but there's so much conflicting information about what is going on here. What are the facts?”
It’s not just American social media, it’s the Italian prime minister as well, but after repeating details of the bout, Brennan added:
From that moment on, here I am in Paris, but from that moment on, it appears as if social media, especially in the United States, has literally crash landed here in Paris at the Olympic games and a story that is out there that is really not correct has now gained traction to the point where it is becoming a worldwide conversation. And the part of it that is absolutely not correct is the conversation that she, the Algerian, is transgender, a transgender woman. She is not she, was born female and is female. And the International Olympic Committee has said now three different times that she is in fact female. So, that's the story in a nutshell, but it is quite a controversy. And I don't think it's going to end anytime soon.
So? Algeria isn’t exactly a country known for its advocacy of LGBTQism, so that’s not surprising. We do know that Khelif failed a gender test and that rare medical conditions, such as Differences of Sexual Disorder, exist and it shouldn’t be surprising people with higher testosterone levels than their peers would be disproportionately represented in combat sports.
Khelif's failed gender test revealed male XY chromosomes, but Brennan tried to tie the test to Putin:
The International Boxing Federation, which, by the way, is suspended because of its connections with Russia, very serious connections of improprieties with the Russian government and Gazprom, one of the companies involved with Putin, that federation is the one that, kind of, cast out here because they said, ‘Well, we did these two tests last year.’ They haven't really said what they were, they're, kind of, mystery tests. And they're the ones that brought this out. And once that came out, everyone went running on social media. But the fact is that that boxing federation, it makes it sound like it's, you know, they know what they're doing; they have been suspended.
Again, so what? Putin belongs at The Hague, but just because his hacks say the world is round does not mean that CNN should be arguing the world is flat. It is unfortunate for Khelif, but there is no right to be an Olympic boxer. Chromosomes and testosterone matter more than passport identification.
Here is a transcript for the August 2 show:
CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta
8/2/2024
10:22 AM ET
PAULA REID: And coming up, the IOC, coming to the defense of a boxer at the center of an avalanche of misinformation
…
10:52
REID: An unusual moment in women’s Olympic boxing has sparked controversy at the Paris games. An Italian boxer quit just 46 seconds into a match against her Algerian opponent after taking an especially hard punch to the head. Now, some critics say the Algerian boxer should not have been allowed to compete after she was disqualified from last year’s world championships. CNN’s Christine Brennan joins us now. Christine, this is a highly controversial topic, getting a lot of traction on social media, but there's so much conflicting information about what is going on here. What are the facts?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Well, Imane Khelif, who is the Algerian boxer, who won that bout, Paula, when the Italian, Angela Carini, decided to quit, to stop after 46 seconds after getting hit hard, that's what happened in the boxing ring. And from that home and on, Carini then said that she'd been hit too hard. She was bleeding, journalists were there. There was a lot of conversation about the hit from Khelif and then of course, the bout stopping, which is so rare, you don't have a boxing match, stop that quickly unless there's, you know, someone has knocked out and that was not the case here. From that moment on, here I am in Paris, but from that moment on, it appears as if social media, especially in the United States, has literally crash landed here in Paris at the Olympic games and a story that is out there that is really not correct has now gained traction to the point where it is becoming a worldwide conversation. And the part of it that is absolutely not correct is the conversation that she, the Algerian, is transgender, a transgender woman. She is not she, was born female and is female. And the International Olympic Committee has said now three different times that she is in fact female. So, that's the story in a nutshell, but it is quite a controversy. And I don't think it's going to end anytime soon.
REID: Certainly not, this is all over social media, like you said, especially here in the U.S, but today the IOC has strongly defending the Algeria boxer, saying many things that you laid out, but their statement is specifically quote, “she was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case.”
How rare is it for the IOC to address a controversy like this? In the middle of the Olympic games?
BRENNAN: You know, this happens every now and then, certainly there was a runner named Caster Semenya, very different situation, but this is someone who has been dealt with over the years, a story about intersex and issues of testosterone. So, these things do happen and they usually happen, of course, in women's sports and going all the way back, you know, 60, 70 years when you had the East Germans doping and Russians, Soviets doping.
So, these things do occur the issue, and I think why this has taken on a life of its own, is that the International Boxing Federation, which, by the way, is suspended because of its connections with Russia, very serious connections of improprieties with the Russian government and Gazprom, one of the companies involved with Putin, that federation is the one that, kind of, cast out here because they said, “Well, we did these two tests last year.” They haven't really said what they were, they're, kind of, mystery tests. And they're the ones that brought this out. And once that came out, everyone went running on social media. But the fact is that that boxing federation, it makes it sound like it's, you know, they know what they're doing; they have been suspended. And if boxing doesn't get another federation, there will not be boxing at the Los Angeles Olympics, throw that into the mix, and I think that of course, is helping to stoke this controversy Christine Brennan.
