The women’s boxing event in the Paris Olympics is not just the stuff of Payton McNabb’s nightmares.
The potential horror as what one ruling body has called a man prepares to pummel a woman is the stuff of every agonizing day of her life since a transgender volleyball player flattened her in 2022 by spiking a ball into her head.
McNabb is among those galvanized to speak out after the Olympics decided to allow two boxers thrown out of a female competition to go ahead and get into the ring with a woman.
When did it become cool to watch women get beat up by men? Actually disgusting and insane https://t.co/DTVAa0qIqF
— payton mcnabb (@paytonmcnabb_) July 31, 2024
Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan were banned by the International Boxing Association, according to the U.K.’s Guardian, after IBA President Umar Kremlev said DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”
Should it be a crime to force women to compete against men in certain dangerous sports?
When pressed as to how the Olympics could allow a couple of guys to fight as women, International Olympic Committee representative Mark Adams noted that “They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case,” according to Reuters.
He also said defining a woman is “incredibly complex.”
Not for McNabb.
McNabb was 17 when a gleeful trans opponent spiked a ball into her head, knocking her out for 30 seconds and turning the active life of an athlete into a pain-stricken battle to exist for a woman who has problems walking due to the brain damage she suffered from that one incident, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Female volleyball player left paralyzed with brain damage by transgender opponent who ‘cackled with delight’ after knocking her to ground
Payton McNabb was 17 when a ball spiked by a trans opponent with force struck her in the face, threw her to the ground and shut off her… pic.twitter.com/YBfY1iji72
— Zaki Solja (@zakisolja) July 31, 2024
“It’s dangerous to have the two [sexes] competing together, and just not OK. I am disgusted by this, personally. This is morally wrong and evil,” she said.
“These women have worked so hard and trained tirelessly to get all the way to the Olympics, all so they can get punched in the face by a dude,” she said.
McNabb knows the struggle they could face. At 19, the student at Western Carolina University who once played sports with zest now has mobility issues on her right side. She requires tutoring to make up for the traumatic brain injury she suffered at 17.
She is not alone in her fears.
“As if the Satanic display at the opening ceremony wasnt enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious. Imane Khelif is 1 of 2 male boxers fighting women at the Olympics,” activist Riley Gaines posted on social media platform X.
“A woman is going to die,” she posted.
As if the Satanic display at the opening ceremony wasnt enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious.
Imane Khelif is 1 of 2 male boxers fighting women at the Olympics. A woman is going to die. pic.twitter.com/kYJX1MaAw4
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) July 30, 2024
The Daily Mail noted that in December 2022, Khelif brutally pounded Mexican female boxer Brianda Tamara, who later spoke about the fight.
“When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,” she wrote on X. “Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized,” she said.
