Pat McAfee Addresses Olympic Boxing Controversy: “The Physical Body Is The One Competing…We Need Some Fairness”

Pat McAfee weighing in on the latest Olympic controversy.

The controversy has actually been brewing for a while, after the Olympics decided to allow Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to compete in Paris, despite questions over Khelif’s biological gender.

Back in 2023, Khelif was disqualified from the International Boxing Association’s world championships after failing a gender identity test, reportedly having elevated levels of testosterone and being found to have an XY chromosome found in biological males. (In case you don’t remember your high school biology classes, males have XY chromosomes while females have XX chromosomes).

But the International Olympic Committee allowed Khelif to compete after stripping the IBA of their status as the governing body for boxing after a series of judging scandals. And the IOC claims that Khelif meets their criteria to compete as a woman:

“I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules. They are women in their passports.”

Khelif has reportedly never identified as male, transgender, or intersex (which apparently means that a person has the biological characteristics of both males and females), and has always competed as a female. But the boxer’s appearance at the Olympics has been controversial, with many claiming that Khelif has a biological advantage over the other women in the competition..

And it sure looked it when Khelif matched up against boxer Angela Carini of Italy in the first round match.

Khelif landed a few strong punches, dislodging Carini’s headgear and possibly breaking her nose, before the Italian boxer raised her hands and abandoned the fight. And after the match, she refused to shake Khelif’s hand, calling the situation “unjust.”

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match.”

Meanwhile, the IBA released a statement after the match regarding Khelif failed gender testing:

“Point to note, the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential. This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”

Khelif initially appealed the ruling before dropping the appeal, leaving the IBA ruling in place.

The controversy surrounding Khelif’s participation in the Olympics has taken over social media today, and despite some apparently questions surrounding Khelif’s biological sex, reignited the debate over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

Pat McAfee weighed in on the controversy today on his ESPN show, opening by empathizing with those who identify as transgender:

“I just don’t understand how we got to this point. And I am coming from a very empathetic point of view as well, because as we all kind of learn about the transgender situation that was happening for people, I think we’re all incredibly like, bummed. Like that would be terrible, if your soul did not match your physical body.”

But McAfee pointed out that these issues are separate from the physical aspect of sports:

“When it comes to sports, it’s like, the physical body is the one competing.”

He goes on to argue that something needs to be done to prevent situations like the one we saw in the Olympics:

“Whenever you’re talking about Olympics and dreams and chasing them, that girl bawling her eyes out from Italy, think about her entire life, was committed, and then she gets into a fight with somebody who physically is going to be more capable…than she even has a possibility of being.”

As McAfee pointed out, the gold medal times for men’s swimming were faster across the board than women’s at this year’s Olympics, simply due to the physical differences between men and women.

What a novel concept, right?

And he says that the current argument that there’s “no difference” between transgender men and biological women is ignoring the cold, hard truth:

“All of a sudden the conversation has turned like, ‘No there is no difference.’ It’s like, there is, especially at a very high level…

I have a daughter who is 15 months old, and if she works her entire life to get to a massive platform, to the biggest competition of all time, and then all of a sudden she has to take on…that is unfair…

At those high level of competition, there is a clear advantage. There always has been, I assume there always will be.”

At the end of the day, McAfee argues that it comes down to being fair:

“We need some fairness. And there’s no reason that we should be seeing a potential male physical body punching a woman. Growing up, that’s like the worst thing that you could possibly do. And now it’s like, we’ve gotten to a point where it’s like, ‘Well, is it?’

It is…

It’s sad. This is a very sad situation.”

I mean, seems like a pretty common sense take to me. But unfortunately, common sense is kinda lacking these days.