BOXING’S GENDER BATTLES ARE NOT HELPED BY SOCIAL MEDIA

Boxing is not yet assured of a place on the Olympic Programme for LA 2028 and beyond, and with issues of governance continuing to plague the sport, it could have done without being dragged into a gender war battle over Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif and Chinese Taipei fighter Lin Yu-Ting.

The Ten Cent Intro is that both boxers were disqualified from an IBA tournament last year because of raised Testosterone levels. Now, the IBA’s governance is regarded as so low that it has not been permitted to run the Olympic Tournaments in Tokyo and Paris, so perhaps we need to look a little deeper beyond the social media headlines.

Khelifa is an experienced boxer who has previously fought and lost to Ireland’s own Kellie Harrington.

Neither she nor Yu-Ting has ever competed or lived as a man; both were born female, have lived their whole lives as such, and have never been questioned about this until the IBA announcement.

Yet now, last night’s Italian boxer, who withdrew after 46 seconds of her fight, has been given succour by Internet celebrity and Boxing Promoter Jake Paul, who is offering her a place on one of his cards so that she can “compete on a fair platform and not against a man.”

Gender identity in sports is a sensitive subject that needs to be addressed in a fair and sensitive fashion.

Hating on two boxers because of a dubious governing body testing regime and an internet pile-on does not qualify as either, and yet that is now how the two boxers’ lives are being defined for a significant population of drive-by observers.  How fair is that?

 

FAREWELL MURRAY

It has definitely felt like the end of a golden era at the Tennis in Paris, with first Rafa Nadal suggesting that this was his final appearance on the court and now Andy Murray also bowing out, in tears, after being given a standing ovation in centre court after a quarter-final defeat in the men’s Doubles.

There are questions over tennis, golf and football as part of the Olympics, with the point being that this really should be the highest point within a sport, which in those instances it is not.

That said, there is always a choice on whether to watch or not and the sport has provided some golden memories since its readmission.  This was one of them.

 

 

THE REASONS FOR THE PURPLE TRACK IN PARIS

We like Purple at Sport for Business, as you might guess from the website and our branding, so when it was revealed that the Paris track for the Olympic and the Paralympic Games would be in our favourite colour, we were naturally pretty chuffed.

Then, when the reason was given that it is visually better to highlight the athletes on screen and to create standout memories of pairs as being a first of its kind, well, you can only imagine that we were nodding along sagely.

“We had to work hard on the colours so that the shades would best highlight the athletes,” Alain Blondel, Athletics and Para Athletics Manager for Paris 2024, told Olympics.com last April. “It’s a track; it has to be pretty, but above all, it’s a stage on which the athletes are going to perform. What’s very important is that the colours and the athletes stand out.”

We can only agree.

 

 

THE CHEESIEST ATHETE SPONSORSHIP AT THE GAMES

No rules were broken; the posts were made when the deal was signed three months ago, but the Italian Gymnast Giorgio Villa has given her sponsor, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, which represents Parmesan Cheese producers, the most viral boost of the Games so far.

They released over 20 images of her posing with wheels of the iconic cheese, like the one above, and after she helped Italy to a silver medal in the team gymnastics this week, they took off online.

We are reminded of Paul and Gary O’Donovan signing up to promote Irish Eggs after winning Silver at the Rio Olympics but that didn’t get the global attention of the big cheese.

 

AN APOLOGY

 

When we wrote yesterday about Canadian rugby coach Jack Hanratty and his Skerries roots, we correctly said that his uncle Jim Glennon was a former Ireland International. However, we were wholly premature in also retiring him from his role as Chair of PR agency Edelman Ireland, where he is still firmly ensconced and doing great work. Sorry, Jim!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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