The Russian-led IBA, which was stripped of its status as amateur boxing’s governing body by the IOC in 2019 because of fears over its governance and regulation, called a news conference in Paris during which president Umar Kremlev and chief executive Chris Roberts were expected to shed new light on the disqualifications.
But after technical difficulties delayed the start of the news conference that ran for more than 100 minutes, Kremlev and Roberts gave contrasting and often contradictory accounts about the disqualifications.
Roberts said the pair had “chromosome tests” but Kremlev appeared to suggest the tests were to determine the fighters’ testosterone levels.
The IBA said the tests were sent to two different laboratories that are accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
However, Wada has told BBC Sport it does not oversee gender tests and its work only relates to anti-doping matters.
It’s a bit ridiculous to say the only obstacle between us and “monstrous behemoths created in labs” is some sports regulations ^^'. Luckily there are already laws that severely restrict what you’re allowed to do with genetic engineering, so don’t you worry.
But coming back to your “monstrous behemoths”, wouldn’t some basketball players for example already fall in that category ? How tall is too tall? When it’s about basketball, you could be 8 feet 1 (2.46 m for my metric brethren) and no-one would try to have you banned from the game, they would probably congratulate you on your lucky genetics instead. Similarly, I’ve never heard of any suggestion of, say, enforcing a minimum resting heart rate for endurance based sports.
Yet if you’re a woman and too muscular for some obscure regulatory body’s liking, you face the risk of being ostracized and banned from competing. The same genetic lottery winning ticket would in this case be considered an unfair advantage. This goes to show that unfairness is not rooted in any hard, undeniable, mesurable quantity, but is at its root a cultural phenomenon. Fairness is in the eye of the beholder, there can be no objective measure for it, -which is why I’m say it simply doesn’t truly exist in sports.
Yeah, nobody ever breaks the law. Especially in regards to sports competition. :D
I wasn’t addressing eugenics actually. Just lab BS which is a far more immediate concern. I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the new reason to break out torches and pitchforks in maybe 2 generations+ from now.