THE saga surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif trundles on over her eligibility (or not) when it comes to compete as a female under the amateur code.

Since competing in and winning the women’s gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the issue of biological males being allowed to compete as women in women’s sport has fed into the wider culture war over the issue of trans. It is an issue that evinces no sign of being resolved to the satisfaction of any involved or impacted anytime soon.

To be clear though, Khelif has never claimed to be champion of any cause other than her right to be considered a biological female, and thereby entitled to compete as one in her chosen sport of competitive amateur boxing. Khelif’s defence in the teeth of the tsunami of opposition to her being able to do so in Paris in 2024 was and remains that she was born a woman and designated such at birth. In this, she enjoyed the stalwart support of the Algerian amateur boxing authorities, the Algerian government and also her people almost to a man and woman.

Her masculine appearance and power, compared to her competitors, is the result of a surplus of Y chromosomes in her genetic makeup, which does not translate — she and her supporters have argued and still maintain — to her being a biological male.

Regardless, Khelif and her Taiwanese counterpart Lin Yu-ting had prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics previously been disqualified from competing at the 2023 World Championships or allegedly failing a gender eligibility test then. This was under the rules of the former world governing amateur boxing governing body, the International Boxing Association (IBA).

This is where the wider geopolitical aspect to all this enters the picture. 

The current head of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, is a Russian sports official and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlev’s critics — of whom there are many — claim that his attempt to stir the pot of controversy over the participation of Khelif and Lin at the Paris Olympics as females was, at least in part, motivated by the Kremlin’s desire for payback over the decision by the IOC to ban Russia from said games over the war in Ukraine. It is also the case that much of Khelif’s support in the West has been driven, also at least in part, by anti-Kremlin sentiment.

But now, the controversy has resurfaced with the world amateur boxing authorities introducing a mandatory “sex test” for all female athletes in order for them to be eligible to compete in future international competitions. In making this announcement recently, World Boxing — the new world amateur boxing authority — singled out Imane Khelif by name to thus place further pressure on the Algerian athlete.

Despite World Boxing issuing an apology for this misstep, surely the damage has been done to the point of ensuring that wherever in the world, and at whichever tournament, Khelif appears going forward, hostility is sure to follow. 

Boxing, as everybody knows, is among the most dangerous of individual sports. It is why safety must always be prioritised over ideology, politics, and external and competing agendas. Whether Imane Khelif or Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting pass the newly mandated sex test or not, it is the system, not them that should be held to account for allowing the controversy involved to linger on for so long.

When it comes to lingering on, the vast sums of money that are currently available to be made in the pro ranks at the top level are responsible for enticing a slew of past marquee names out of retirement. The latest of those who’ve proved unable to resist the temptation to do so is 46-year-old Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao. 

His comeback  — if it can be so-called — is scheduled to take place on July 19 in Las Vegas against current WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios. The year that Pacquiao won his first world title, 1995, is the same year in which Barrios was born. This alone tells us everything we need to know about the lunacy driving this particular fight, despite the efforts of Pacquiao and all concerned to argue otherwise.

Pacquiao has teamed up with his longtime trainer and friend, Freddie Roach, at the latter’s famed Wild Card gym in Hollywood to prepare himself. From recently released footage of him training, he unsurprisingly appears a shadow of the fighter of lore. His balance, speed, and reflexes are that of the 46-year-old man he is, rather than the 26-year-old unstoppable machine he was.

Of course, Pacquiao claims that his comeback has nothing to do with money. They all say that, though, don’t they? Why else would anyone come out of long retirement to put themselves through the inordinate rigours of a training camp prior to entering a boxing ring to get punched around the head and body? 

If youth is wasted on the young, then experience is wasted on the old. The wisdom to know when it’s over is what separates those who survive intact and those who do not. Manny Pacquiao has more than earned his place boxing history. His attempt to emerge from the past to become part of its present is an indictment of those close to him who are content to go along in order to get along.

Greed not sporting endeavour is driving this spectacle, and spectacle is what happens when meaning is absent.