Olympics Boxer Imane Khelif Speaks Out Against Bullying Amid Gender Row

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has been caught up in a fierce gender row at the 2024 Olympics, has spoken about the negative impact the furore is having on both her and her family.

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“I am sending a message to all people in the world to uphold the Olympic values ​​and the Olympic regulations and stop bullying all athletes because this bullying has big effects,” she said in an interview over the weekend.

“It can destroy people and kill their thoughts, their spirit and their mind. Bullying can cause division and because of all this I am asking them to stop bullying,” said the athlete, who competes in the 66 kg (145 pounds) welterweight category.

She made the comments in an Arabic-language interview with video partner platform SNTV, a joint venture between The Associated Press and the Endeavor-owned IMG group.

The Algerian boxer has found herself caught in the crosshairs of violent debate about gender eligibility after Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned their qualifying match just 46 seconds into the first round, following a powerful blow to the face, citing fears for her life.

Khelif, 25, who was born and raised as a woman, identifies as a woman and is registered as a woman on her passport, has been competing in international women’s boxing championships for six years.

Her career has been under scrutiny following the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) decision to disqualify her from the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi in March 2023, alongside Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, on the basis that they had failed gender eligibility tests.

A raft of high-profile names including J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have expressed outrage on social media, suggesting Khelif is male, even though this charge has repeatedly been dismissed as false information.

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has stood steadfastly by Khelif and Lin, saying there has never been any doubt about them being women.

IOC President Thomas Bach has even writing personally to Khelif to express his support.

Khelif said the backlash and media storm was having a detrimental effect on her family.

“I am in contact with my family two days a week and I hope they are not too deeply affected by what is happening. They are worried about me and God willing this crisis will end with a gold medal and this medal will be the best response to the critics,” she said.

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Since fighting Carini, Khelif has also defeated Hungarian contender Anna Luca Hamori in the quarter-final on Saturday. She will next face Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-final on Tuesday, August 6.

Prior to the match, Hungary’s boxing federation and Bulgaria’s Olympic Committee lodged objections with the IOC on Friday over its decision to allow Khelif to compete.

Bulgaria also flagged its concerns about featherweight boxer Lin ahead of her victory on Sunday against Bulgarian contender Svetlana Kamenova Staneva.

In the backdrop, the IBA has continued to lobby against Khelif and Lin’s participation in the games, while the IOC has questioned the validity of the New Delhi tests and severed ties with the body.

The IBA held a chaotic press conference in Paris on Monday in which it promised to clarify its stance on why it considered Khelif and Lin ineligible for the women’s boxing contest in the Olympics.

The event only served to sew further seeds of confusion after IBA’s Russian president Umar Kremlev gave a rambling address via videolink, in which he stood by his description of Bach as a “sodomite” saying the IOC had insulted Christianity with its stance.

Without revealing the details of the testing procedure or the exact results, IBA medical expert Ioannis Filippatos suggested that both boxers had the chromosomal make-up of a man, but added crassly they had been “not checked between the legs”.

There have been suggestions that Khelif and Lin were born with Disorders In Sex Development (DSD), which results in people born as women having XY male chromosomes and high levels of testosterone. Neither athlete has commented on these reports.

The presence of XY chromosomes alone would not be enough to define a person as being male, with other genetic and biological factors coming into play.

Khelif, in the meantime, told SNTV that she had been staying clear of social media.

“I do not follow what is published on social media. There is a mental health team that does not allow us to see the sites, especially during the Olympic Games, and this applies to me and all the athletes on the mission. I am in Paris to compete and get a good result.”

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