Italian Olympian Angela Carini’s heartbreaking boxing match is just the latest indication of how dangerous the Biden-Harris Title IX rewrite will be for women.

The 25-year-old female boxer from Naples, Italy, withdrew from her Aug. 1 boxing match after only 46 seconds and two hits from Algeria’s Imane Khelif.

Controversy over the inclusion of Khelif arose well before the Olympic match. The boxer was disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association Women’s World Boxing Championships after failing two gender eligibility tests. They didn’t identify which tests, but they did say it was not a test for testosterone levels. That strongly suggests that at least one of the tests revealed that Khelif has male-typical XY chromosomes.

Piecing together other reports, it’s likely that Khelif has 5-alpha reductase deficiency.  As a result, the external genitalia would not have fully masculinized and could have been mistaken as a female at birth. But the boxer has testes, with the testosterone levels of a male, a body that responds to the hormone like a male, especially during puberty.

In other words, despite having a disorder of sexual development, Khelif otherwise enjoys the very advantages that justify female-only competitions. Indeed, it would be foolish to ignore those biological advantages. Carini confirmed that when she told interviewers after the match that she had never felt a punch like that.

“I started to feel a strong pain in my nose,” she explained. “I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said, ‘Enough.’ I’m leaving with my head held high.”

The International Olympic Committee responded to critics via a statement on X. It said that all athletes participating in the boxing tournament complied with eligibility standards and medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.

The IOC failed to acknowledge that its decision to allow Khelif to compete violates its own Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variation.

It’s in that framework that the IOC explicitly states that “the physical, psychological, and mental well-being of athletes should be prioritized when establishing eligibility criteria.” It leaves to question whether the IOC chose to ignore the physical well-being of female boxers when they opted to allow two biological men, Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, to participate in the Paris 2024 boxing competition.

In this case, a group of scientists already uncovered the answer for the committee.  

Philadelphia University researchers used sensors to determine the average force of a punch for male boxers weighing about 66 kilograms (145 pounds), the weight class of Carini and Khelif. They found males at that weight deliver punches with a force ranging from 932 newtons to 1,149 newtons. That’s equivalent to the force of a small motorcycle.

As if that were not reason enough to question male participation in female boxing matches, a University of Utah study found that males can deliver punches with 162% more force than females. Males have 75% more muscle mass than their female counterparts.

Allowing men to compete against women in elite sports is always unjust. But in boxing, where the differences between males and females are so vast, and the risks so high, it borders on criminal.

These biological, science-backed differences may explain why this boxing match felt different to Carini, or at least why she experienced severe pain in her nose.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni quickly responded in support of Carini’s decision to end the match.

This problem is not limited to this summer’s Olympic boxing spectacle, however. It has become the new norm for some American athletes after the Biden-Harris overhaul of Title IX went into effect on Aug. 1

Males who “identify as women” are now protected by law against discrimination in women’s spaces, sports, and scholarships after the definition of sex was expanded to include gender identity.

This new interpretation requires educational institutions and programs that receive federal funding to comply with the Department of Education’s redefinition. That leaves many biological women like Carini at a scientific disadvantage.

But this isn’t just about the opportunities and scholarships that are already being taken away from women. Some lawmakers are concerned for their health and safety.

Lawmakers have already challenged the regulation, arguing the Biden-Harris administration’s redefinition of sex greatly oversteps its legal authority and conflicts with state laws that govern their public schools.

After legal debate, the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction to temporarily block it from going into effect in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Federal courts have enjoined the changes in 26 states. That’s a huge win for female athletes.

Be it local varsity teams or the Olympics, lawmakers who support legislation like the Biden-Harris administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX risk discouraging generations of women from becoming exceptional, equal members of society.

Carini’s refusal to compete against a man with XY chromosomes forced the world to acknowledge the true victims of this woke ideology; namely, women.