The women’s welterweight gold medallist is well known for being at the heart of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games gender row.
This first started when Khelif was granted permission to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even though she was prohibited from competing at the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) 2023 World Championship for failing gender eligibility tests. These tests were conducted by the IBA itself.
However, the IOC says that the IBA’s tests were biased, and that Khelif was “born a woman.”
Khelif sparked controversy at the Olympics after her opponent, Angela Carini, pulled out of her round-of-16 fight with Khelif after only 46 seconds, alleging that Khelif’s punch “hurt me a lot.”
The controversy has continued, with Donald Trump featuring a video of Khelif in his campaign video whilst referring to her as a man: “We surrendered our border, our pay checks and our courage, our patriotism was called toxic. Men could beat up women and win medals.” Khelif has already taken legal action before against Trump and X owner, Elon Musk, for cyberbullying and constantly associating her with gender violence.
Trump also continually called Khelif a man during an appearance on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast: “Did you see that boxing match at the Olympics? Did you see that beautiful Italian girl? She's supposed to be a good boxer. She took just a left jab. The guy goes boom. Like a defensive punch. I never saw something quite like that.”
Khelif already filed her lawsuit against “aggravated online harassment” after the Paris 2024 Games. Her lawyer, Nabil Boudi, said: “The investigation will determine who was behind this misogynist, racist and sexist campaign, but will also have to concern itself with those who fed the online lynching.”
Boudi also described the "iniquitous harassment" Khelif faced as “the biggest stain on these Olympic Games.”
In addition to this, French media claims to have possession of Khelif’s medical report and is indicating that she has a sexual development disorder supposedly found in genetic males. This is known as 5-alpha reductase deficiency. This has spurred further online harassment.
The documents were initially referred to in an article by French journalist, Djaffar Ait Aoudia, in Le Correspondent. It suggests Khelif had medical tests at the Kremlin-Bicetre Hospital in Paris in June 2023 after being expelled from the 2023 IBA World Championship. It says that Khelif has male body parts and lacks a uterus and ovaries.
After the article was published by Le Correspondent, Umar Kremlev, the president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), held the IOC president responsible for the Algerian's participation, along with Lin Yu-ting from Chinese-Taipei, in the Paris 2024 boxing tournament.
“Everyone already knows the news. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has broken all sporting rules by pitting a man against a woman. Tests have once again confirmed that Imane Khelif is in fact a man. Today, as President of the International Boxing Federation, which defends gender equality and protects both men's and women's boxing, I demand that Thomas Bach and his team issue a verbal and written apology to the global boxing community,” said Kremlev.
"Thomas Bach is directly responsible for this as he personally pushed for this to happen - for men to compete against women. On behalf of boxers worldwide, I demand that he gets down on his knees and apologises to the boxing community and to the girls who were beaten and abused. Thomas Bach, like everyone at the IBA, I now await your official apology,” he declared.
Khelif will allegedly be taking further legal action against people who cited these purported medical reports or “unverified documents whose origin cannot be confirmed,” as said by the IOC.
The IOC said: “We understand that Imane Khelif has taken legal action against individuals who commented on her situation during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and is also preparing a lawsuit in response to the latest reporting. The IOC will not comment while legal action is ongoing, or on media reports about unverified documents whose origin cannot be confirmed.”
After the 2024 Olympics, Khelif said: “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition - I am a woman. I was born a woman; I’ve lived as a woman, and I’ve competed as a woman. There’s no doubt that there are enemies of success and that gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
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