Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who won the gold medal in boxing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, has announced that she will take legal action against the French media outlet Le Correspondant, which leaked medical reports saying the boxer has male chromosomes.
The medical report on tests Khelif passed in June 2023 after she was disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championship said that Khelif suffers from 5α-reductase-2 deficiency (5αR2D), a rare mutation in one Gene that only affects genetic men. It is also said that Khelif does not have a uterus and has XY chromosomes.
Khelif had already reported to the French authorities the online harassment she suffered during the Olympics and is in contact with the IOC (International Olympic Committee), which revealed that Khelif is also taking legal action against this French broadcaster.
“The IOC will not comment while legal proceedings are ongoing or on media reports of unverified documents whose provenance cannot be verified,” and showed its support for the boxer by reiterating that Khelif has competed in women’s boxing for years and said, that they are “sad” about the abuse she receives online, as in SkySports is to be read.
The IOC is in conflict with the International Boxing Association (IBA) and does not recognize the leadership of the IBA, setting its own parameters: in the Olympic Games, the gender and age of athletes are based on their passport data.
However, the IBA had disqualified both Khelif and Lin Yu Ting (also a gold medalist in Paris) for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests. Khelif, who was harassed online, said she was “born a woman, lived as a woman and competed as a woman” during the Olympics.
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