To the editor: The word “magnanimous” was not used correctly in your article on the gender issues in Olympic women’s boxing.
Italian boxer Angela Carini’s inability to protect her face and head is no justification for her later crying and telling her team, “It’s not fair,” and refusing to shake Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s hand, fueling the inaccurate, hateful comments that Khelif is transgender.
The Times’ portrayal of Carini as being magnanimous in walking back her comments highlights the implicit bias in this whole affair: Anyone not white and successful must be a monster or a cheat.
Hassan Abdul-Wahid, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The obsession with Khelif is becoming absurd.
In many sports, the top athletes are often found to have advantages that are the result of genetics. Those advantages include:
Being very tall; having an unusually large stride while sprinting; having a much higher pain threshold; having an unusually large lung capacity; having an abundance of fast-twitch muscle fibers. The list goes on.
Khelif was born female, has always boxed as a female, and has been defeated by females.
Let’s stop making mountains out of molehills. There are far too many truly serious problems in the world that actually deserve our attention.
David Tempest, Mar Vista
