The women’s 800 metres in Rio should have served as the starkest warning. The champion, Caster Semenya, was 46XY, genetically male. Two other athletes with differences in sexual development filled out the podium. And in the shadows, Britain’s Lynsey Sharp cried her eyes out at seeing the medal for which she had strived so long snatched away. What has happened to Carini, though, is far worse. The Olympics have created many situations for women that are unfair. But this time, the IOC threw the Italian into one that was patently unsafe.
And it knew about it. Mark Adams, the IOC’s spokesman, had been asked multiple times for a response to worries about Khelif. He brushed off the questions with disdain, ordering journalists not to engage in a “witch-hunt” and to “dial it down”. Well, now he has everybody from the Italian prime minister to the United Nations expert on violence against women and girls to highlight the offensive absurdity of his position. An issue that could have been resolved has spiralled into an international incident. Good luck with dialling that down.
For anyone who has sat on the fence on this subject, this should be the moment that the scales fall from the eyes. Anyone seeing the blood smeared over Carini’s shorts or the despair etched on her face can recognise now that this is where supine governance leads. This is where a consistent and tone-deaf refusal to heed the concerns of women ends up. “It is not fair,” Carini cried. And in the most vivid way imaginable, the world can now see what she means. Truly, the dam wall is breaking.