Showing what Hungarians think about Imane Helif’s participation in the Olympics

The Hungarian society is divided on the issue of what would be the correct procedure for intersex athletes.

The majority opinion (sixty percent) believes that the International Olympic Committee made a wrong decision by allowing Imane Helif to compete in the Olympics. Only seventeen percent support the decision, and another twenty-three percent cannot judge the issue. Among those with a degree, the percentage of those who reject the decision is lower (forty-six percent), but even among them, there is a clear majority supporting Imane Helif’s participation (twenty-seven percent) – according to the summary of a representative survey conducted by Opinio Institute among one thousand respondents and submitted to Magyar Nemzet.

As it is known: Imane Helif is allowed to compete among female boxers at the Paris Olympics despite being excluded from last year’s World Championship due to her high testosterone levels and the XY chromosome characteristic of males. It became a scandal when her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, gave up the fight against her after only 46 seconds in the round of 16, leaving the ring in tears because she received punches of unusual strength for women.

As stated in the summary of the survey: the vast majority of the Hungarian society (ninety percent) has heard about Imane Helif’s case at least at the headline level, and forty-eight percent claim that they have looked into the topic in more detail. Among men who follow the Olympics more closely, the percentage is slightly higher than the average (fifty-four percent), and among those with a degree, it is significantly higher (seventy-one percent) of those who claim to be well-versed in the details.

What would have been the right decision in the case of Imane Helif?

The Hungarian society is divided on the issue of what would be the correct procedure for intersex athletes. The relative majority (thirty-two percent) believes that a unique, multi-faceted evaluation should be applied in the relevant cases, while thirty percent believe that a simple, transparent rule would be correct (e.g. testosterone levels). Nineteen percent would make the decision dependent on the sport, and sixteen percent would clearly limit athletes like Imane Helif to the men’s category.

Only a narrow, three percent minority would allow them to compete in the women’s category by default.

The majority of the Hungarian public considers the heated debate in the public sphere harmful (forty-four percent), with only a twenty-six percent minority believing that it helped clarity. Only among the 16-19 year-olds, a more popular opinion (forty-two percent) is that the debates helped clarity, while among those with a degree, there is an outstanding percentage who believe that the debate was harmful because it reinforced existing prejudices (sixty-two percent).