IOC Official Outraged by Malicious Rumors Targeting Imane Kerif Labeled as Former Man

What kind of nerve do you have to spread false rumors and then, when your mistake is pointed out to you, ignore it as if it never happened?　You should remember how many people have lost their lives due to unjustified slander before you start talking about it. If you don’t at least understand the background before participating in the discussion, you may be complicit in the taking of a life. Those who are being fed a hoax should be ashamed of themselves.”

An IOC official involved in the boxing events at the Paris Olympics told this reporter with anger in his voice. It all started with an incident in the women’s 66kg boxing event.

In the first round of the match between Algeria’s Imane Kerif (25) and Italy’s Angela Carini (25), Carini suddenly abandoned the bout. Carini commented after the match, ‘I had to save my life. Kerif, the victor, is an athlete who has been a woman since birth, but she has a unique condition called “hyperandrogenism,” which is the secretion of high levels of male hormones. People who were aware of this fact, however, assumed that Keriff was a “transgender” or “former male” and accused him of being “unfair”.

J.K. Rowling, the well-known author of “Harry Potter,” cited this match and accused Keriff of being “a man (Keriff) who enjoys the suffering of a woman (Carini) who hit him on the head.

As if in response, the issue spread to Japan, especially on social networking sites. Hiroyuki commented on Keriff, saying , “He is a former man” and “He is a man who took my balls. He is not a woman,” he commented.

‘ Keriff also competed in the ’21 Tokyo Olympics and was eliminated without winning a medal. On the contrary, Kalini abandoned halfway through the Tokyo Olympics, just as he did this time. The people who are vilifying Keriff are talking as if she is a former male athlete who has violated female athletes, but the fact is that she is not. She has been a woman since birth and has competed on the world stage as a female athlete. She is not like athletes who entered swimming or weightlifting competitions after undergoing a sex change. How many people actually watched these games in the first place?” (IOC official mentioned above)

Nevertheless, there are many who see the focus of this issue not in the context of transgenderism, but in the IOC’s entry criteria.

“The IOC has allowed Keriff to compete after determining that ‘his age and gender are passport compliant and his testosterone levels are not at a level that would give him an advantage in competition. On the other hand, the International Boxing Association concluded last March that Keriff ‘did not meet the criteria necessary to qualify for competition after examination. This discrepancy does not seem to have caused the current tragedy. It would be nice if there were internationally uniform standards for testosterone levels. I am sorry to say that Keriff is an athlete, but it is an undeniable fact that higher testosterone levels tend to lead to more muscle mass. The spread of the malicious falsehood that she is a former man is categorically unacceptable, but how to categorize female athletes with hyperandrogenism in the upcoming Olympics is a matter of debate.

The indescribable slanderous comments that Keriff has received in the current turmoil have undoubtedly reached him as well.

I honestly don’t know if it is fair for Keriff to compete against other female athletes. But her will to compete for the gold medal in a competition sanctioned by the IOC, just like any other athlete, should not be thwarted by malicious rumors, nor should this case be used as a political battleground for transphobic people. This is just a kick in the pants to rethink the criteria for entry. What made me angry was that the guys who initially said about Keriff, “He’s a transvestite,” didn’t apologize when they found out it was a hoax, but instead said, “We should think about the testosterone level issue. Before slandering athletes, they need to study internet literacy.

Perhaps those who are watching need to understand once again that athletes are not to blame.