By Lauren Smith, European Conservative. (photo: Algeria Press Service/Wikipedia Creative Commons)
So, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is a man after all. That simple fact—now apparently confirmed by leaked medical reports—casts last year’s Olympic controversy in a damning new light.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, we witnessed the truly shocking boxing match between Khelif and Italy’s Angela Carini. After just 46 seconds in the ring, Carini abandoned the match. She took only a few hits from Khelif before falling to her knees in tears. She was thought to have suffered a broken nose and complained that she had “never felt a punch like this.” Khelif went on to win gold for Algeria.
At the time, there was intense speculation about Khelif’s biological gender. The boxer looked considerably more masculine than the other athletes in Paris and, judging by Carini’s reaction to the match, was clearly more physically powerful, too. Although cleared to compete in Paris, Khelif had previously failed a sex test at the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi and was disqualified from the final there. In fact, according to the International Boxing Association, Khelif had failed biochemical testing two years in a row.
All this raised some serious concerns about Khelif’s eligibility to compete—especially given that there was another gender-ambiguous boxer taking part in the Olympics that year. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting had also failed genetic sex testing and also made a female opponent leave the ring in tears following their match.