VILLEPINTE, France – There is no doubt that the next time we do this in Los Angeles, Olympic boxing will look different than it did on Saturday: A young woman from rural Algeria who has spent 48 hours in the middle of an international firestorm , a ravenous media screaming questions as she walked past being shielded by her coaches, sobbing visibly after she won an important fight, and an Olympic delegation from the country of the loser suggesting in the most diplomatic way possible they didn’t believe any of this was legitimate. This can’t happen again. Imane Khelif ’s mere presence here has exposed it, the outcast boxing officials clinking their vodka glasses in Moscow have made sure of it and the unaccountability of social media has confirmed it. The IOC’s management of the Paris Olympics boxing tournament has proven to be a failure. It’s a failure of anticipation, communication and clarity, and the consequences have allowed the Russians to run a psyop on the world that will turn every subsequent competition into a witch hunt for genitals and chromosomes. Despite what is now ironclad evidence that Khelif was born a woman in Algeria, has lived as a woman and knows nothing about herself other than being a woman, enough of the world is now convinced she doesn’t belong at the Olympics that it is impossible for anyone to leave here a winner.
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