On August 1, the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif made headlines following her victory in the 66 kg boxing category against Italy’s Angela Carini. Khelif was declared the winner by the referee following Carini's decision to abandon the bout after just 46 seconds. The victory caused a wave of ongoing misinformation about the athlete’s gender.
Several media outlets and social media users shared a claim alleging that Khelif was transgender or a biological man. However, the Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif is not a trans woman, and there is no evidence that she is biologically male.
In a post viewed over 1.3 million times on X, a British author alleged, “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered. #Paris2024”
The 46-second victory caused a wave of ongoing misinformation about the athlete’s gender and ignited a debate on gender eligibility, as many have criticized the International Olympic Committee for its criteria.
Despite the public criticism and online abuse, Imane Khelif has had a successful boxing career as a female with many achievements. In 2022, she won gold medals at the African Championships and the Mediterranean Games and earned a silver medal at the World Championships in Istanbul, losing to Ireland’s Katie Broadhurst. In 2023, she also won a gold medal in the women’s welterweight event at the Arab Games.
Algerian Imane Khelif Becomes Target of Gender Row at Paris Olympics 2024
Imane Khelif is a 25-year-old Algerian boxer who is competing in the women’s 66 kg boxing event at the Paris Olympics. The first fight of Imane Khelif at the Olympic Games lasted only 46 seconds, as her Italian opponent Angela Carini gave up the fight after two blows to the head. Carini collapsed to her knees in the ring and refused to shake hands with Khelif as she was declared the winner. Carini claimed that she had never been hit as hard in the ring before.
In press interviews later, Carini made a statement: "I fought very often in the national team. I train with my brother. I've always fought against men, but I felt too much pain today."
The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the confrontation as unequal, adding: “I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions.”
In an X post, the American swimmer Riley Gaines said, “Men don't belong in women's sports. #IStandWithAngelaCarini Let's get it trending.”
Since Gaines tweeted, the hashtag #IStandWithAngelaCarini has been used thousands of times and has made it to the top of X trends.
In another misleading post on X, a user said, “And not just boxing, keep men out of all female sports.”
After a huge uproar online over the gender controversy targeting Imane Khelif and a Taiwanese boxer named Lin Yu-ting, the International Olympic Committee issued an official statement: “We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” the IOC wrote in a statement. “The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships, and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.”
The committee’s spokesman, Mark Adams, reported in a press conference that Imane “was born female, is registered as female, has lived her life as female, boxes as female, and has a female passport,” stressing that the issue is not related to transgenderism. For its part, the Algerian Olympic Committee condemned the criticism directed at Khelif, describing it as attempts to discredit her based on lies.
Algerian Imane Khelif Disqualified From the Women’s World Championships in 2023
In March 2023, Imane Khelif was abruptly disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after she defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament. The circumstances of the disqualification and its curious timing have been considered highly unusual, especially because the IBA is controlled by Umar Kremlev, who is Russian.
The sport’s governing body claimed that DNA test results showed the athlete had XY chromosomes, citing this as the reason for her disqualification from the world championships. The IBA also cited high levels of testosterone in Khelif's system. However, the test results were never published, and Khelif has never disclosed her biological markers, calling the decision a "big conspiracy."
In a new statement released this week, the IBA clarified that Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, a Taiwanese boxer, had not undergone a testosterone exam but were “subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.” “This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” they wrote.
Notably, the International Boxing Association fueled tensions late Friday by announcing it would pay the Italian boxer Angela Carini.
The International Olympic Committee has long criticized the International Boxing Association and its governance of the sport and eventually banned the Russian-run organization in 2019 over issues related to its finances, governance, ethics, refereeing, and judging.
The official spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, Mark Adams, has strongly defended Algerian boxer Imane Khelif against the aggressive campaign.
During a press conference, Adams stated: “The Algerian boxer was born female, registered as female, lived her life as a female, and boxed as a female. She even has a female passport. This is not a transgender case.”
Adams emphasized that athletes with higher testosterone levels are still women.
Continuing his defense of Khelif, the IOC spokesperson added: “There are many women who naturally have higher testosterone levels than some men, so the idea that a testosterone test is a magical solution is simply not true.”
He elaborated: “According to eligibility criteria, their passports, and their history, the answer is yes. A test that may have been conducted overnight was fabricated and new. We shouldn’t give it any credence at all.”
In its Thursday statement, the International Olympic Committee confirmed that all athletes participating in the boxing tournament “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations.” It said it used the Tokyo boxing rules as the baseline for this year’s regulations.
Furthermore, the committee called Khelif and the Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting “the victims of a sudden arbitrary decision by the IBA.” The International Olympic Committee said it is “saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving” and stressed the need for National Boxing Federations to “reach a consensus around a new international federation” for boxing to be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Hormone Levels Are Being Used To Discriminate Against the Algerian Boxer
Throughout the modern history of the Olympics, rules about who counts as a woman have shifted as the scientific understanding of sex has progressed. Disqualifying athletes based on natural testosterone levels is one of the last legal forms of discrimination in sports. Most men have XY chromosomes, while most women have XX chromosomes, which drive the production of lower levels of testosterone. Some women, however, have XY chromosomes as well as external female anatomy; these women are affected by the World Athletics policy.
Testosterone is a sex hormone produced by both men and women. However, men produce up to 20 times more testosterone than women. When people naturally produce an excess of sex hormones such as testosterone, it is called hyperandrogenism. Research has suggested that testosterone can promote bone and muscle mass, and deliberately boosting levels is a common form of doping and is banned.
From the 1960s until the 1990s, dozens of women were singled out and even disqualified because of their chromosomes. Inequitable chromosomal testing disqualified women who had every trait of the female sex except for XX chromosomes. Later, the International Association of Athletics Federations abandoned routine gender tests in the early 1990s, concluding they were not needed.
The International Olympic Committee's head of human rights, Magali Martowicz, said in 2021 that there was no "scientific consensus" on how testosterone affects athletic performance. At the end of 2021, the IOC gave up on establishing uniform guidelines for this kind of participation criteria. In this regard, the official spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Mark Adams, said that athletes with higher testosterone levels are still women.
"Testosterone is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone levels that would be called 'male levels' and still be women, still compete as women," he said.
In research funded by the International Olympic Committee that sought to prove the hypothesis that testosterone levels do not correlate with female muscle mass, strength, and performance, 35 females were studied across a broad range of natural testosterone concentrations. Despite increased strength, plasma levels of testosterone remained unchanged. There was no evidence of a relationship between baseline total testosterone and pre-training muscle strength. In contrast, testosterone was positively associated with muscle mass and function and with the muscle anabolic response in females.
Algerian Olympic Committee Condemns the Misleading Gender Allegations Against Imane Khelif
The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee has strongly condemned the smear campaigns targeting Imane Khelif during her participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the committee addressed “the unethical behavior directed at our champion, Imane Khelif, by certain foreign media outlets through false propaganda.” “Such attacks are entirely unethical and baseless, especially as she prepares for the pinnacle event of her athletic career—the Olympic Games,” the statement added. The committee also called on the Algerian government to support Khelif, noting that “her outstanding performance has caused discomfort for some.”
In a post on Facebook, the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee said it had filed an official complaint with the International Olympic Committee to address the online harassment of Khelif, which amounts to “a serious violation of sports ethics and the Olympic Charter by one of the participants in the boxing tournament.”
The Algerian team’s statement alleged that another boxer posted disparaging comments about Khelif and warned that the IOC “has issued a final warning to delete every post concerning our heroine.” “We reserve the right to prosecute everyone who participated in the heinous campaign against our heroine Imane Khelif,” the statement said.
“We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some want to own a definition of who is a woman.”
In response, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the “hate speech” directed at boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting at the Paris Olympics was “totally unacceptable.” “We are not talking about a transgender issue here. This is about a woman taking part in a women’s category,” he said. “We have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women, who have passports as women, and who have competed for many years as women.”
Via his X account, Algeria's president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, congratulated Imane Khelif on her victory and said that she “honored Algerian women.”
Despite there being no proof that Khelif is a transgender boxer, heated debates ensued on social media in 2023 over her eligibility to compete in the Olympics. Previously, Misbar published a fact-check regarding misleading information alleging that Imane Khelif is a transsexual athlete.
Father of Algerian Boxer Calls Attacks on the Fighter ‘Immoral’ and ‘Unfair’
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's father has launched a passionate defense of his daughter. Amar Khelif said the attacks being hurled against his daughter are unfair and immoral. Khelif defended his daughter by presenting an official document dated May 2, 1999, which confirms that Imane was born female.
“Imane is a little girl who has loved sports since she was six years old; she used to play football. These critics and rumors aim to destabilize Imane; they don't want her to be the champion of the world,” he said. “The Italian opponent she faced was unable to defeat my daughter because my daughter was stronger and she was more skilled,” he added.
According to Imane's father, his “little girl” has loved sports since the age of six, and these “critics and rumors aim to destabilize” her as they don't want her to become the world champion. "I tell her to prove them wrong in the ring, and I hope that she will honor Algeria and Arab countries by winning the gold medal. She is our role model, and we want to be like her and honor Algeria and Tiaret," Omar asserted, calling her “our role model.”
Khelif, who is a UNICEF ambassador, has previously spoken about growing up in a rural village and not being allowed to take part in sports initially by her father, as "he did not approve of boxing for girls."
Imane Khelif To Fight in the Boxing Semifinals at the Paris Olympics
The 25-year-old Khelif secured Algeria’s first boxing medal since 2000 after beating the Hungarian fighter Luca Anna Hamori convincingly in the quarterfinals of the 66 kg category. Khelif stopped briefly to speak to an Algerian television crew. “This is a matter of dignity and honor for every woman,” the 25-year-old Khelif said.
“The entire Arab world has known me for years. For years, I have been boxing in international competitions, and they (the International Boxing Association) were unfair to me. But I have God.”
Speaking after her defeat, Hamori said, “I’m so proud of myself because I had to fight.” She added that “it was a very hard day for both of us” but “I wish good luck to Khelif in the future.”
Khelif will now face Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semifinal on August 6, but is guaranteed at least a bronze medal regardless of the result of that fight.
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