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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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On the back of revelations that the IBA banned Khelif mid tournament some time ago and that Carini has now issued an apology, the IBA is gifting Carini a US$50k payout as if she had won a gold medal..

This is after the IOC recently discredited the IBA for banning Khelif 'without due process mid tournament':

These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.

“According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should ‘establish a clear procedure on gender testing’.

“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.

Nothing about whether Khelif has XY chromosones. Entire statement is 'the IOC developed guidelines and followed those guidelines therefore it's irrelevant what genetics Khelif has as all people have the right to compete'.

Edit: The IOC has fired back at the IBA with shady accusations like 'it's unclear where the money is coming from'

Who is running the IOC's media account? It's worth going through all the statements by IOC against the IBA recently.

So wait, the IBA is still around even though it isn't recognized by the IOC because of accusations of corruption, right? Is the IBA giving money to all the medal winners even though it isn't involved?

I thought they're saying IBA is no longer recognized as a result of this drama. Accusations of corruption are pretty rich here.

No the IBA recognition was yanked years ago as a result of totally unrelated accusations of corruption related to their relationship with Gazprom.

The IBA is just getting involved in this to troll the IOC. Which, hey, great opportunity.

This is after the IOC recently discredited the IBA for banning Khelif 'without due process mid tournament':

Huh? The IBA statement clearly says both of them had a right to appeal at an independent arbiter:

For clarification:

  • Lin Yu-ting did not appeal the IBA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), thus rendering the decision legally binding.
  • Imane Khelif initially appealed the decision to CAS but withdrew the appeal during the process, also making the IBA decision legally binding.

What do you call that, if not "due process"?

Due process involves a lot more than just the right to appeal though. If your local cops picked you up off the street, for no reason, faked evidence, threw you in jail after a trial you didn't get to attend, kept you in solitary until finally the Supreme Court granted you an appeal,it would be hard to describe that alone as giving you due process. Indeed the Supreme Court might decide your due process rights had been violated as part of the appeal regardless of whether the cops thought they had followed them.

That doesn't mean the IBA didn't give due process, but the ability to appeal to CAS can't be in and of itself said to show the IBA followed due process otherwise. Likewise because CAS is based in Switzerland its decisions can be appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal but CAS itself might have failed to follow whatever counts for due process in Switzerland, either on purpose or by mistake.

Again it's not evidence they didn't follow due process, but it isn't evidence they did either.