PARIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 01: Imane Khelif of Team Algeria punches Angela Carini of Team Italy during the Women's. 66kg preliminary round match on day six of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at North Paris Arena on August 01, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
After a “leaked” report claiming she is a biological man, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif‘s Olympic gold medal is being called into question.
Khelif, along with Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-Ting, were the subject of controversy during the 2024 Olympics after failing the gender eligibility tests at last year’s world championships. However, they were both allowed to compete and won in their respective weight categories.
Now, Khelif’s credibility is being re-examined due to allegations, first reported by Blid, that she is biologically male. French and Algerian endocrinologists collaborated to make the claims.
Upon hearing the news, many Olympic athletes, officials and commentators have called for Khelif to be stripped of her gold medal.
“Confirmation of what some of us said at the time: Khelif is a biological man,” Piers Morgan wrote on X. “The gold medal should now be stripped and awarded to the best actual woman.”
Tennis star Martina Navratilova also condemned the International Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to participate despite her failed eligibility test.
“What we have been saying for months. And for calling this person a man or at least a male, we got called all kinds of names and most of all the women this male took medals and wins from. Just awful,” she said on X.
Sports presented Laura Woods commented on the issue of transgender eligibility within the Olympics.
“Transgender people SHOULD absolutely have a place in sport, but NOT at the expense of the safety or fairness for women,” Woods posed. “And it is not up to women to find that solution. These categories should be protected.”
Khelif has long maintained that she was eligible to compete as a female row boxer and condemned the bullying of athletes following her win in Paris.
“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” Khelif said in Arabic to SNTV in August. “It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
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