Misinformation spurs controversy around Algerian boxer’s gender identity

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has been caught up in a culture war in recent weeks, won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday, Aug. 9.

Following Khelif’s quick victory over Italian boxer Angela Carini on Thursday, Aug. 1, a fervor broke out online as people across social media insinuated that Khelif is a transgender woman. Many of those people further claimed that Khelif had an unfair advantage and she shouldn't be allowed to compete in the Olympics.

“A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her. You’re a disgrace, your ‘safeguarding’ is a joke and #Paris24 will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini,” author J.K. Rowling wrote in a viral post on X. 

Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk also amplified claims about Khelif’s gender identity. 

Multiple readers asked us to VERIFY claims about the controversy.

VERIFY researched what the International Olympic Committee has said about Khelif’s gender identity and eligibility for the Olympics, how a Russian-led boxing organization fueled the controversy, and what led to virulent false claims about the boxer’s identity. 

THE SOURCES

• International Olympic Committee (IOC) statements 
• International Boxing Association (IBA) statements
• Equaldex, an online resource on LGBTQ+ rights
• Associated Press report on IBA press conference held on Aug. 5, 2024
• Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee
• Interviews with boxers Angela Carini and Imane Khelif 

WHAT WE FOUND

IOC confirms Khelif’s female identity

There is no evidence to support claims that Khelif is a man or a transgender woman. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stated Khelif was born female and has lived her life as a woman, and that she is eligible to compete in the Paris 2024 Games.

During a press conference held on Aug. 2, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams addressed the controversy over Khelif’s gender identity, confirming she was born female and has always competed in women’s boxing. 

“The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case,” Adams said.

He added, “Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman.”

Algeria does not allow a person to change their legal gender and the country bans gender-affirming care, according to Equaldex, an online resource on LGBTQ+ rights. The website says “there is no legal recognition of trans people on official documents” in Algeria and “medical transition is not possible.”

The IOC and the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit also upheld Khelif’s eligibility to compete in the Olympics in a joint statement released on Aug. 1, writing that all athletes participating in the boxing tournament “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU).”

In that statement, the IOC and PBU said an athlete’s gender and age are based on what is listed on their passport. Khelif’s passport identifies her as a female, according to Adams’ comments during the Aug. 2 press conference.

The IOC and PBU said they saw reports with “misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” referring to Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting. Yu-ting has also been subject to controversy over her gender identity during the 2024 Olympics. 

“The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments,” the IOC and PBU said in their statement. “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 IOC and PBU added that the “current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”

Claims about Khelif’s gender identity stem from boxing group banned from Olympics

Online claims about Khelif’s gender identity stem from the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which is a governing body that helps run the sport of boxing worldwide. The IBA says it disqualified Khelif and another boxer from a 2023 competition for allegedly failing to meet eligibility criteria for the women’s competition.

But the IBA has not shared specifics about tests the organization says it used to disqualify the athletes, and officials have flip-flopped in statements about what these tests were measuring.

The IBA was also banned from the Olympics in June 2023. The dispute between the IOC and IBA that led to the ban centered on the IBA’s management, its finances being backed by Russian state energy firm Gazprom, and the integrity of bouts and judging. 

For the past two Summer Games, an IOC-appointed administrative committee has run the Olympic boxing tournaments rather than a governing body like the IBA.

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IBA explains why it banned boxers from 2023 competition 

Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting were disqualified at a 2023 boxing competition in New Delhi because a test determined they didn’t meet eligibility criteria, the IBA says. 

But the IBA has revealed very few details about the tests used to disqualify the athletes, as well as their results or methodologies. 

In March 2023, IBA President Umar Kremlev, an acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Russian-state owned news agency TASS that the organization had “excluded athletes who tried to pass themselves off as women from the list of participants in the Women’s World Championship in India.” Kremlev did not mention Khelif or any other athletes by name.

“Based on the results of DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women. Based on the results of the tests, it was proven that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from the competition," Kremlev said at the time.

Most males have XY chromosomes while most females have XX chromosomes. However, this isn’t universally true. For example, some people can be born with XY chromosomes and female genitalia due to various medical conditions, such as a rare disorder called Swyer syndrome.

More than a year later, on July 31, 2024, the IBA released another statement to address media reports about Khelif and Yu-ting’s participation in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

That statement says the athletes were disqualified from the 2023 competition in New Delhi because they failed to “meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA regulations.”

The IBA clarified in this statement that the athletes “did not undergo a testosterone examination 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 necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA said in its statement.

IBA statements about athlete tests contradict each other

During a press conference on Aug. 5, Kremlev appeared to directly contradict information about the tests in the IBA’s July 31 statement. 

While speaking on a patchy Zoom from Russia, Kremlev said during the press conference that the tests showed elevated levels of testosterone, the Associated Press reported.

Chris Roberts, the IBA’s secretary general and CEO, also repeatedly said during the press conference that observers should “read between the lines” about the tests while declining to give more details.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said in early August that the IBA gave the Olympic body the results of the testing done on Khelif and Lin, but it was “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.”

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What Khelif and Carini have said in response to the controversy

Khelif’s Olympic opponent Carini said she wasn’t making a political statement about Khelif after she lost the match and that her decision wasn’t a pre-meditated move. 

“All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini said. “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. …If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”

Carini was also apologetic for not shaking Khelif’s hand after the bout.

“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said. “Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again, I would embrace her.”

For her part, Khelif said in an interview with SNTV, a sports video partner of the AP, that the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender identity “harms human dignity” and called for an end to bullying of athletes. 

“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. “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.”

Khelif declined to answer when asked if she had undergone tests other than doping tests, saying she didn’t want to talk about it. 

Algeria’s Olympic Committee denounces attacks against Khelif 

Algeria’s Olympic Committee also denounced the attacks against Khelif, calling them “attempts at defamation” that are “based on lies.”

“The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee (COA) denounces in the strongest terms the malicious and unethical attacks directed against our distinguished athlete, Imane Khelif, by certain foreign media. 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 Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee said in its statement released on Aug. 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: La desinformación incita controversia alrededor de la identidad de género de la boxeadora argelina