Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has fought in the boxing ring for years, but now she is facing jabs of another kind: those questioning her gender. Some people are wondering whether she should be competing in the Olympics at all.
Khelif’s performance at the 2024 Olympics has become a flashpoint in the discourse about allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports.
“Beating women is now a spectator sport,” a July 30 post’s text read. “Why are the #Olympics allowing this male to enter the boxing ring with a woman?”
“Imagine training your whole life, making (it) to the Olympics just to get your dreams literally smashed by some men!” the caption said. “Enough is enough.”
Social media users claimed that Khelif was a man because she was disqualified in a previous tournament. Russian state-controlled media quoted the president of the disqualifying boxing organization saying the results of a DNA test showed Khelif has XY chromosomes. Biological females typically have two X chromosomes (XX) and biological males typically have one X and one Y chromosome (XY).
Public figures such as former President Donald Trump, X owner Elon Musk and author J.K. Rowling amplified the claims that Khelif is a man.
But those claims lack context about Olympics eligibility requirements, the circumstances of Khelif’s and Lin’s previous disqualifications and the lack of information surrounding the DNA tests the International Boxing Association said it administered.
The claims that Khelif is not a woman are not substantiated. Khelif has always competed as a woman; she has never come out as transgender or intersex. “The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport,” International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said in a Aug. 2 media briefing (14:34). “This is not a transgender case.”
“Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman,” he said.
Algeria’s Olympic Committee denounced the attacks against Khelif in an Aug. 1 statement, calling them “malicious and unethical.”
“These attempts at defamation, based on lies, are totally unfair, especially at a crucial time when she is preparing for the Olympic Games, the peak of her career. The COA (Le Comité Olympique et Sportif Algérien) has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion,” the statement read.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s spokesperson supported Lin in an Aug. 1, X post.
Khelif is eligible to compete in the Olympics
Khelif and Lin were disqualified at the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi after they failed an eligibility test.
The Russian-led International Boxing Association, which organized the World Championships, said DNA tests showed the two athletes had XY chromosomes, according to a March 2023 statement from the president to Russian news agency Tass. But the International Boxing Association does not oversee qualification for the 2024 Olympics; the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, set up by the International Olympic Committee, does.
The International Boxing Association was stripped of its Olympic recognition in 2023, because of a dispute involving its management, its finances and its judging integrity. In an Aug. 1 statement, the International Olympic Committee reiterated that the gender and age of athletes competing in boxing are based on their passports, as it has been with previous Olympics and with tournaments during the qualification period during 2023 and 2024.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category,” the statement read. “These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.”
The statement named neither Khelif nor Lin, but Adams read out that statement in an Aug. 2 press conference while fielding questions about the two athletes.
Both Khelif and Lin competed in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
International Boxing Association no longer recognized
Eligibility standards for boxing in the 2024 Paris Olympics are determined by an ad hoc unit the International Olympic Committee set up after it stopped recognizing the International Boxing Association.
The International Boxing Association appealed the committee’s decision, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the appeal, saying the association did not improve financial transparency and sustainability, has not ensured its integrity by changing its process involving referees and judges and has not reformed its governance.
In a July 31 statement addressing the controversy, the International Boxing Association said Khelif and Lin “did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.” The test, it said, showed the athletes have “competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
The International Boxing Association’s board of directors meeting minutes from March 25, 2023, said that the board asked why the disqualification of the two athletes was being raised at the end of the championships after they had already gone through different tournament stages. The International Boxing Association’s secretary general and CEO, “acting on behalf of IBA,” told the two athletes about their disqualification.
Khelif’s Olympics profile previously said she was disqualified “just hours before her gold medal showdown” against a Chinese opponent.
At the time, Khelif called the disqualification a “big conspiracy.” Lin did not appeal the disqualification; Khelif took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an independent institution that arbitrates sports-related disputes, but later withdrew it.
