The International Olympic Committee released a statement Thursday regarding the situation involving Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and the drama that has taken over social media about her gender. In the statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, it starts by saying that “every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination.”
A firestorm of posts on social media exploded once Khelif beat Italian boxer Angela Carini after 46 seconds where the latter quit the fight. This brought Khelif’s gender into question, especially since she “failed to meet gender eligibility tests at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year” according to NBC News.
People would say that Khelif is transgender, though would be untrue since she was born a woman, but has a condition where her body produces a high level of testosterone per Politico. The IOC would call out “misleading reports” that question the gender of Khelif.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the statement reads. “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 stands firmly behind Imane Khelif
The statement would further call out the IBA for their “gender testing” on such athletes as Khelif and even Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan who both were disqualified from competition in the past.
“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,” the IOC wrote.
There is no doubt that the statement from the IOC comes down to the fact that Khelif will continue participating in the event as her next fight is Saturday in the quarterfinals against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary.
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