Are the Olympic Boxers’ XY DNA Test Results ‘Russian Disinformation’?

There are no good reasons to doubt the IBA's claim that both Khelif and Yu Ting have XY chromosomes.

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About the Author

Dr. Colin Wright is the Founding Editor of Reality’s Last Stand, an evolutionary biology PhD, Manhattan Institute Fellow, and a member of The Killarney Group, the world’s leading think-tank on sex and gender. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, City Journal, Quillette, Queer Majority, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals. He has been a guest on popular TV shows and podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Triggernometry, Timcast IRL, and others.

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Imagine you are a female boxer who has become the target of a Russian disinformation campaign. This campaign aims to prevent you from competing against other women by falsely claiming that multiple DNA tests have proven you are biologically male. This disinformation is used as grounds to disqualify you.

Now, consider your possible responses. Would you A) Do absolutely nothing; B) Immediately appeal the decision and make your lab results public to clear your name and continue competing as a woman; or C) Refuse to appeal your disqualification and demand that the DNA test results never be released, allowing false rumors about your sex to proliferate unchecked?

If you chose B—appeal the decision and prove your sex—you align with approximately 98 percent of women who responded to an informal poll on X, stating they would take the same action in such a situation.

This thought experiment may seem absurdly hypothetical, but it actually reflects a current controversy involving Olympic boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting, who were disqualified by the International Boxing Association for not meeting the IBA’s XX chromosome requirement to compete as women. In response, activists and media outlets have been fervently scrambling to defend their inclusion in the female category at the Paris Olympics.

Initially, the narratives sought out rare developmental conditions known as differences of sexual development, or DSDs, which could potentially result in a woman having XY chromosomes. I addressed those possibilities in an a recent article here on Reality’s Last Stand, and much more briefly in the Wall Street Journal. However, as the public has learned more about why DSDs like Swyer syndrome or partial androgen insensitivity syndrome do not support their preferred outcome, they’ve switched to a new line of attack.

They now claim that the assertions about Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting having XY chromosomes are “Russian disinformation.”