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Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal in the women’s welterweight class and was her country’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.
She has become a hero in Algeria and has brought attention to women’s boxing worldwide. But what she is most known for is the intense scrutiny over her sex and gender after a flood of online criticism and false claims during the Paris Olympics.
The Olympic boxing champion has now filed a complaint in France for online harassment, her lawyer said.
In a statement posted on Instagram on SaturdayKhelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, alleged that there was “aggravated cyber-harassment” directed at Khelif, describing it as a “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign” against the boxer.
The complaint was filed Friday with a special unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office for combating online hate speech, the Associated Press reported. It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether to launch an investigation. As is standard in French law, the complaint does not name the alleged perpetrator, leaving it up to investigators to determine who might be guilty.
The bullying Khelif endures “violates human dignity,” she previously told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press.
“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, minds and intellects. It can divide people. And that’s why I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won Olympic gold in the women’s under 66 kg category.
Global clash
Khelif became embroiled in a global conflict over gender identity and rules in sports after her first fight at the Games. Her Italian opponent Angela Carini was forced to withdraw after 46 seconds after receiving a punch to the face.
False claims that Khelif was transgender or a “biological male” circulated online, amplified by celebrities including Elon Musk, author JK Rowlingbrothers Logan Paul and Jake Paul — former YouTube stars who got involved in wrestling and boxing, respectively — and Caitlyn Jenner, a retired Olympic gold medalist and transgender woman.
“Could any picture better sum up our new men’s rights movement? The grin of a man who knows he’s protected by a misogynistic sporting establishment, reveling in the misery of a woman he’s just hit over the head and whose life’s ambition he’s just crushed,” Rowling said on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Harry Potter author became known for her controversial comments about the transgender community.
There’s a long and fraught history of gender testing and claims in women’s sports, Rose Eveleth, the host of the new podcast Tested, from CBC and NPR, told CBC’s Front burner last week.
However, she noted that boxing often increases the emotional intensity and stakes.
Front burner30:40The Torn History of Olympic Boxing and Sex Testing
“Some of the worst actors, who don’t really care that much about women’s sports or boxing, can make this play that’s about safety, that’s about, you know, a man beating up a woman. Which, again, is not what’s happening here,” Eveleth said.
“But it’s a very spicy headline and a very intense tweet that you can share and people get really angry about. And I think it’s easier to make people angry.”
IOC defends Khelif
The International Olympic Committee has defended Khelif, saying in a statement: Declaration of August 1 that “everyone has the right to practice sports without discrimination.” Criticism was also leveled at the “misleading information” circulating about Khelif.
“As in previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes will be based on their passports,” the statement said.
Ahead of Khelif’s gold medal match, IOC President Thomas Bach defended her right to compete in the women’s competition.
“What cannot happen is that someone says ‘this is not a woman’ just by looking at someone, or that they fall prey to a smear campaign by an unreliable organization with very political interests,” Bach said Friday, according to AP.
Khelif does not identify as transgender or as having been born with a male body. According to a GLAAD fact checkingThere is no evidence that Khelif ever identified as transgender or intersex.
Joanna Harper, former medical advisor to the IOC, weighs in on the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. She was eligible to compete in the women’s welterweight division at the Paris Olympics, but had previously been ruled ineligible under International Boxing Association (IBA) rules due to her elevated testosterone levels.
Several of the false allegations on social media referenced an incident in March 2023 when the International Boxing Association (IBA), the sport’s governing body, disqualified Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan at the World Championships in New Delhi.
The IBA stated that they had failed the entry tests for the women’s competition, but did not specify which tests these were.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is entirely based on this arbitrary decision, taken without any due process – especially considering that these athletes have been competing at the highest level for many years,” the IOC said in a statement on August 1.
The IOC voted in June last year to remove the IBA as the governing body for Olympic boxing over financial, sporting integrity and governance issues, a decision that later confirmed by the courtwhich effectively excluded the organization from the Olympic Games.
