Women’s Olympic Boxing Post-Mortem

Understanding the Errors in These Discussions

Thomas St Thomas
5 min readNov 4, 2024

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On the day I finally decided to publish this, it sounds like the medical exam was leaked. When surrounded with insanity, it can make us feel like we’re the crazy ones.

I’ve been thinking about the discussion surrounding women’s boxing and the Olympics and I felt kind of crazy. I kept thinking, “Why do educated people think Imane is female? Where did Imane’s Y chromosome come from? Why is this even debatable?”

So I went online and started reading a few things about sexual development disorders. I then went to my bookshelf and reviewed a couple books on this subject. Then I went to social media to see what these authors were saying about this controversy.

Still, I don’t know how anyone considered Imane to be female.

From what I read, the situation of someone like Imane is that they are conceived when a sperm with a Y chromosome fertilizes an egg. However, one of two things or a combination of both happens; there is an underproduction of testosterone, and/or the receptors are desensitized to testosterone.

What ends up happening is they develop incorrectly and upon birth, they have what appears to be female genitalia and are raised as such. But there are internal developmental…

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Thomas St Thomas
Thomas St Thomas

Written by Thomas St Thomas

I’ve got questions. Writing helps me find the answers. Husband, dad, Afghan vet, healthcare process consultant, former fitness guru.