At the Olympic Games, the case became a political issue. Following recent media reports, the Olympic boxing champion is now preparing a lawsuit.
The Algerian Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif is now also taking legal action against reports questioning her gender. As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Wednesday, the 25-year-old has taken “legal action” against people “who have commented on her situation during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and are also preparing a lawsuit in response to recent reporting”.
At the beginning of the week, reports were published in France claiming that Khelif also had a male Y chromosome. The IOC “will not comment while legal action is ongoing or on media reports about unverified documents whose origin cannot be confirmed,” the statement said.
The IOC also emphasized that Khelif had been competing in the women’s category in international competitions for “many years,” including the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships, and tournaments organized by the IBA. The IOC is “saddened by the abuse that Imane Khelif is currently experiencing.”
The debate about Khelif, which has been going on in boxing for quite some time, intensified continuously from the beginning of the Games in the summer until her final triumph. By August 1 at the latest, when Khelif’s first fight against Italian Angela Carini, who withdrew after 46 seconds, the issue had become a political one.
