Where play meets politics

Every four years when the Olympics come around, the world's politicians mouth absurdities about how "sports and politics should not mix".

- DEVANGSHU DATTA

And, every Olympics emphasise that sports is definitely politics by other means.

Apart from now-forgotten idiocy about "amateurism", previous Olympics are remembered for showboating by dictatorial regimes (1936, 2008), the massacre of athletes (1972), Black Power protests (1968), post-war triumphalism (1948), boycotts triggered by geopolitical events (1980, 1984), etc. The upcoming Paris Olympics also has plenty of noise and fury centred on Russian and Belarusian participation, or the lack of it.

But Paris 2024 could also be controversial in terms of gender politics. Before getting into this subject in any detail, definitions may be necessary. "Sex" refers to biological characteristics, whereas "gender" refers to socially constructed roles and identities. The two usually coincide say, someone with male sexual characteristics usually identifies as male by gender.

But in a small but not insignificant number of cases, somebody who is born into one sex identifies as a member of the other gender. Then, we have complications. That somebody may wish to "transition" - going through surgery and hormonal therapy to switch genders. Or, they may simply choose to identify as the other gender.