Imane Khelif and the Sociology of Sports: Gender, Sex Classification, Media, Identity and Institutional Power in Global Boxing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68219/x413qa52Keywords:
Sociology of Sport, Imane Khelif, Sports Governance, Intersectionality, Institutional PowerAbstract
Sport is a crucial social institution through which society manages and controls gender, embodiment, nationalism, and institutional power. The international controversy around Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (precipitated by her clash with Angela Carini and the past eligibility issues at the 2023 International Boxing Association (IBA) Championships) is a crucial point of reference in this study. From this sociology-of-sport perspective, we combine postcolonial feminism, intersectionality, Foucauldian biopolitics, and Bourdieusian field theory to investigate the mechanisms of athletic eligibility. We work in a qualitative manner, where we analyze the social dynamics of transnational media (N = 200) and compare institutional governance policies. The analysis shows how biology, gender identity, and athlete eligibility are critical aspects of the social environment and thus how the public and the institutional conflation of these aspects lead to systemic marginalization. In order to model this friction, the paper develops the idea of an institutional classification dilemma—the tension between rigid structures of competition and athlete safety, and the ethical imperative to avoid bio-surveillance, personal intrusion, and the devaluation of athletes. In the end, this research introduces eight actionable governance principles to guide the equitable and evidence-based regulation of women’s elite sport.
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