Imane Khelif has pledged to continue fighting in the women’s category despite a decision by the International Boxing Association to file criminal complaints over the Algerian’s participation in last summer’s Paris Olympics.
“I am not going anywhere,” said the 25-year-old, who detonated an intense global furore by winning a gold medal in female boxing after two rounds of sex testing indicated the presence of male chromosomes. “I will fight in the ring, I will fight in courts, I will fight in the public eye until the truth is undeniable.”
The IBA is lodging an official complaint against the International Olympic Committee with Switzerland’s attorney-general, arguing that “any action or inaction that poses a safety risk to competition participants” could warrant a criminal prosecution under Swiss law.
It has come after the IOC, headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne, decreed that womanhood could be determined by passport status alone, allowing Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting – whose sex tests revealed the same chromosomal pattern – to sweep to gold in Paris, each winning in four one-sided contests.
Khelif responded furiously to the move, declaring: “For eight years, I have fought for my dream – eight years of sacrifice, discipline and perseverance to stand on the Olympic stage and represent my country with pride. I have earned my place, and I will continue to stand firm in the face of any challenge. I have taken the high road while my name and image have been used, unauthorised, to further personal and political agendas through the dissemination of baseless lies and misinformation. But silence is no longer an option.”
While Khelif has characterised the scandal unleashed in Paris as “baseless”, the fact remains that the Olympic welterweight champion had the chance to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a ban from two successive world championships but chose not to follow through.
The IBA has pointed out that Khelif and Lin could defuse the controversy by taking a simple cheek swab to confirm that they are female – a measure explicitly advocated by Reem Alsalem, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for violence against women and girls. Neither fighter has chosen to do so.
Concern at Khelif and Lin entering paid ranks
Khelif is understood to have been training recently in the Bahamas, alongside Cuban trainer Pedro Luis Diaz, in readiness for a potential transition to the professional ranks. But any future paths to a long-term boxing career are rapidly narrowing. Two of the global sanctioning bodies, the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council, have expressed profound concerns about either Khelif or Lin being permitted to turn professional.
“What it comes down to is the integrity of our sport and the safety of women boxers,” said Gilberto Mendoza Jnr, president of the WBA. Mauricio Sulaiman, his counterpart at the WBC – an organisation that has long opposed the IBA – was similarly unambiguous. “Any person born woman can only fight against a person born woman, and vice versa? Is that absolutely clear? Yes.”
Outwardly, Khelif was defiant, insisting: “I have fought through every setback, every false accusation, every attempt to erase me. And I have won. Each obstacle has only strengthened my resolve. I will continue to compete with honour and integrity.” There was also a threat to the IBA to “pursue all available legal avenues to ensure that justice prevails”.
Except the IBA is in no mood to back down, citing US president Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning biological males from women’s sport in the United States in defence of its position. It has maintained that the IOC, which ran the boxing events in Paris due to a refusal to recognise the IBA as a legitimate body, disregarded crucial genetic information that it had provided about Khelif and Lin.
Thomas Bach, outgoing president of the IOC, has condemned any criticism of the two boxers as “hate speech”. By contrast, Lord Coe, the head of World Athletics and one of the seven candidates bidding to replace Bach next month, has endorsed Trump’s stance and pledged to uphold the sanctity of the female category, deciding to introduce cheek swabs for any elite athletes with differences in sexual development intending to compete as women.
