Olympic boxers deserve compassion. But questions of fairness shouldn't be brushed aside.

If you haven’t, watch the video of Italian boxer Angela Carini facing off against Algerian Imane Khelif last week at the Paris Olympics.

It doesn’t last long. Carini quits the match after 46 seconds. “It isn’t fair,” she said, after taking a punch in the nose.

The incident has ignited an internet firestorm that continues this week.

The reason? Khelif, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, were given the green light to compete in the 2024 Olympics, even though last year they were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships of the International Boxing Association (IBA) after they reportedly failed a gender eligibility test.

It’s important to note that Khelif and Lin do not identify as transgender, so what’s going on in their situation is more nuanced than many are portraying on social media.

It's also important to say that both Khelif and Lin deserve compassion.

But so do Carini and other female athletes, and Carini’s point about fairness is an excellent one. That’s what this discussion should be all about.

Biology matters, especially in sports

Khelif and Lin have additional matches this week, and they are guaranteed medals at this point as they’ve reached the semifinals in their respective competitions.

So expect the scrutiny to escalate.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), called out the “abuse” and “hate speech” directed at the athletes as “totally unacceptable.”

I’m sure Khelif and Lin have heard some very disturbing things. I know how mean people can be.

Yet, honest conversations and concerns over eligibility shouldn’t be thrown into the same category as “abuse.” Simply raising these questions is not hatred – it’s seeking a level playing field, which any athlete should understand is the ultimate goal.

The fact that male and female competitions are separate, and that “mixed” Olympic relays are evenly split between men and women, imply an explicit understanding that gender differences matter.

Fairness in sports also matters, that’s why so many rules exist. It’s also why performance-enhancing drugs of any kind are barred.

It gets more complicated when the “performance-enhancing” substances are intrinsic, but they’re no less important.

For instance, if Khelif and Lin have XY chromosomes, as the IBA seems to suggest, they are benefitting from more testosterone than other female athletes, and that’s a fairness problem.

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An IOC spokesman has said: “They are women on their passports. It’s not helpful to start stigmatizing like this.”

What matters is what their chromosomes say. Evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven, who recently left her teaching job at Harvard University after being lambasted for speaking the truth about human biology, has written about how some individuals can have XY chromosomes yet sex development differences can lead to them being “born with female-appearing genitalia.” But they are still male.

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I don’t know if that is the case with Khelif and Lin, but if it is, they could have an unfair biological advantage over other female athletes.

This is no fault of their own, and they should identify as they wish, but when it comes to competing at the highest levels, their chromosomes do matter.

Fairness in women's sports is gaining ground

None of this is happening in a vacuum. The fight over ensuring fairness in women’s sports has become a major flashpoint in national politics.

On Thursday – the same day Carini faced Khelif – President Joe Biden’s sweeping rewrite of Title IX guidelines took effect. The new rules change the definition of “sex” to include gender identity and would force all educational institutions that take federal money to allow for transgender athletes to choose the sports teams and locker rooms they wish.

The Title IX revamp won’t have the immediate impact Biden wanted, however, as the courts have halted its implementation in more than 20 states so far. The judges have disagreed with the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of the original law.

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And earlier this year, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas lost a legal challenge to compete in this year’s Olympics. In 2022, World Aquatics banned transgender women who have been through male puberty from women’s competitions and created an open category for transgender athletes.

Kindness and acceptance are worthwhile goals. They shouldn’t, though, be used as an excuse to allow some athletes unfair advantages over others.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic boxer controversy raises legitimate questions of fairness