In early August 2024, an Algerian female boxer at the 2024 Paris Olympics named Imane Khelif was forced into American culture wars over allegations she was a man identifying as a woman to cheat her way to the top. The news cycle began after Khelif’s unusually short victory over Italian boxer Angela Carini.
On Aug. 1, 2024, Khelif faced Carini in an opening bout of the women’s welterweight boxing tournament at the 2024 Games. Forty-six seconds into the bout, Carini ended the fight early after being punched a few times, delivering an unusual win to Khelif.
Carini later said she ended the fight due to severe nose pain following one of Khelif’s blows. Video showed her sobbing after her loss and not shaking Khelif’s hand when offered to her. “I have never felt a punch like this,” she said after the fight.
Anti-trans activists and social media pundits immediately painted this fight as an example of the alleged unfairness and danger of allowing trans women to fight against those assigned female at birth.
The author J.K. Rowling, for example, described the match on X as “a young female boxer” having “everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because [the International Olympic Committee] allowed a male to get in the ring with her.”
The virulently anti-trans X account Libs of TikTok also weighed in, describing Khelif as “a man … being allowed to compete in women’s Olympic boxing in Paris.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump chimed in as well, describing Khelif as “a person that transitioned”:
The problem with these arguments was Khelif is neither trans nor male. She was born, and has lived her entire life, as a female. The sanctioned International Boxing Association (IBA) alleged in a confidential report she did not meet the World Boxing Championship requirements for female competition in 2023, despite having competed as a woman in that same competition for many years prior, winning silver in 2022.
Khelif’s eligibility was challenged only after she beat a Russian opponent to advance to the World Championship quarterfinal round in 2023. The IBA was once recognized by the IOC as the official governing body for boxing — but that title was rescinded in April 2023 following, among other things, allegations of corruption and ties to Russian money. As a result, the IOC, not the IBA, sets the rules for Olympic women’s boxing.
Who is Imane Khelif?
Khelif is an Algerian boxer who has competed, as a woman, at the international level for years. She has always identified as a woman, and as a UNICEF ambassador has discussed the role that being a young girl in a tiny rural village has had on her development as a boxer:
When Imane Khelif, 24, one of Algeria’s top female boxers is asked what achievements she is most proud of, she says, “It’s being able to overcome the obstacles in my life.”
Imane recalls how at 16 she managed to excel in football in her rural village in Tiaret in western Algeria despite football not being seen as a game fit for girls. Moreover, the boys in her village felt threatened and picked fights with her. Ironically it was her ability to dodge the boys’ punches that got her into boxing.
She came in 17th at the 2018 IBA World Boxing Championships and 33rd in the 2019 IBA World Boxing Championships. She represented Algeria in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In those games, she lost to the tournament’s bronze medalist, Ireland’s Kellie Harrington. Her presence did not generate any controversy. She went on to win silver in the 2022 World Boxing Championships.
What Happened in 2023?
Khelif also competed in the 2023 IBA World Championships in New Delhi — that is, until she beat a Russian boxer. On March 22, 2023, Khelif “dominated“ Russian boxer Amineva Azalia with a 4-1 victory, securing her a position in the quarterfinals scheduled to begin a few days later.
On March 24, however, the IBA disqualified Khelif, suggesting a “failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition.” In 2023, the head of the IBA told the Russian news agency TASS that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.” XY chromosomes are typically associated with males.
Responding to controversy a year later, however, the IBA more generally claimed that Khelif was “subject to [a] … recognized test” but that “the specifics remain confidential.” The IOC had suggested the 2023 disqualification was due to her testosterone level, but the IBA pushed back on that claim.
Can Women Have XY Chromosomes or Elevated Testosterone?
Gender testing for women’s sports remains controversial. The rationale is that the process of going through puberty as a male imparts significant physical advantages over females that could make competition between the sexes dangerous. The controversy, historically at least, has largely been over how these tests should work and how to handle cases complicated by the natural genetic diversity of human life.
There are genetic conditions, termed differences of sexual development, in which biological females are born with XY chromosomes but possess female anatomy, or that affect how a biological female regulates and reacts to testosterone, causing levels typically associated with males. Though there is no independent confirmation that Khelif has these conditions, people born this way would legally be considered female or intersex.
Debates over these issues in the context of women’s sports have nothing to do with a purported “woke” or “trans agenda,” because such instances involve women who were born as women, identify as women and have not undergone any sex reassignment surgery or procedure to change this fact. That is what IOC spokesperson Mark Adams meant when he clarified to the press “this is not a transgender issue.”
Gender-reassignment procedures require significant financial and medical resources. The notion that a woman from a rural western Algerian village who sold scrap metal to support her boxing career would have had the ability to undergo such a procedure in a deeply conservative Muslim country that prohibits the practice is extremely unlikely, at best.
IOC Responds
On Aug. 1, 2024, the day Khelif defeated Carini, the IOC released a statement defending both Khelif and another boxer facing similar accusations, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting:
We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. 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 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. Such an approach is contrary to good governance. Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence.
The IOC stated that both boxers have met the IOC eligibility requirements for competition as a woman in boxing.
Angela Carini Was Not Making a Political Statement
Social media accounts falsely attempting to make this story about transgender athletes attempted to paint a sorrowful picture of Carini’s loss, describing her dreams as having been crushed by a man pretending to be a woman and suggesting that photos of the fight and of Carini’s tearful reaction evoked images of domestic violence. Carini’s tears and her not shaking Khelif’s hand were used to support this narrative.
But according to The Associated Press, Carini was not making a political statement at all, and did not intend to refuse to shake Khelif’s hand:
“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 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.”
It is not uncommon for athletes of any gender to shed tears after losing a shot at a medal in the Olympic Games, nor is it uncommon for a punch to the head from an Olympic boxer to cause pain. Boxing is a sport in which two people try to punch each other hard enough to cause a knockout.
Bottom Line
The only purported evidence for the claim that Khelif is trans comes from an undisclosed test performed by an allegedly corrupt sports governing body that may have shown she has a DSD condition. The IOC has said Khelif meets its requirements for participation, with Adams, the IOC spokesman, specifically clarifying, “This is not a transgender issue.”
Because Khelif is not transgender, claims attempting to make her victory against Carini an issue about transgender rights or “woke” politics are without basis.
Snopes reporter Jordan Liles contributed to this report.
