He Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement a few hours ago in which it categorically rejected the “lies” and “defamations” directed towards the boxer Imane Khelif. The athlete has been the subject of attacks on various media outlets and social media accountsfollowing his recent performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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Khelif was embroiled in a controversy when her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, retired from the fight after only 46 seconds, after receiving a The only blow to the face, which he described as “the hardest I have ever received in my life”. The images of Carini’s retreat, who was caught crying, were reported on social media as Carini protesting because her opponent was, in fact, a man.
Although it was stated on the networks that the Italian He complained that “there was no level playing field,” his appearance after the fight At no point does it show that he referred to his rival in those terms. The Italian explained that her withdrawal was a decision made due to severe pain in her nose, indicating that she did not wish to continue the fight under those conditions. “I felt a strong pain in my nose and, with the maturity of a boxer, I decided to stop because I did not want to, nor could I, finish the fight.”
After the fight, The controversy grew with surprising speed, even by the usual internet standards, with thousands of posts on social media that took it for granted that Imane Khelif was a male boxer competing against women and presenting Carini as a “victim” of progressivism and “woke” culture.
Figures of the stature of the Italian president Georgia Melonithe writer J.K. Rowling, the tycoon Elon Musk and the president Javier Miley echoed the accusations against the Algerian boxer, as well as users and influencers from all over the world, mostly related to the right and the far right.
What they criticize is that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows both athletes to compete in the women’s category Khelif like the Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting –who will fight this Friday in the featherweight division– after the International Boxing Association (IBA, in English) will expel them from the 2023 World Cup for failing to pass their sex eligibility tests.
However, Khelif is not trans. Own COI criticized today in a statement that “misleading information is being published” about “both female athletes” who have been competing “for many years in the women’s category”. news account Algeria Football Media, declared that the boxer suffers from hyperandrogenisma condition that involves having higher than average natural testosterone levels. This “led to her being disqualified” from the World Cup, but since then the athlete “is undergoing treatment,” the account X (formerly Twitter) posted, accompanying the comment with a photo of her when she was little.
In its statement, the Algerian Olympic Committee explained that Khelif had already competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics without facing the same scrutiny on social media as this time. And he described the accusations against him as “completely unfounded,” she is misidentified as a transgender athlete. The Algerian boxer identifies as a cisgender womanthat is, someone whose gender at birth matches the gender with which they identify.
The background of the Semenya case
In recent years there has been a similar casewhich involved the South African athlete Casper Semenya. Throughout his career, Semenya won the 800m gold medal at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and was world champion at Berlin 2009, Daegu 2011 and London 2017.
Before she turned 20, her gender began to be questioned. They even wanted to perform a vaginal ultrasound on her, which she refused, but In August 2009, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published the results of medical tests carried out by the IAAF which confirmed that she was an intersex person.
This means that He has XY chromosomes like Khelif and naturally high levels of testosterone. due to a deficiency of the enzyme 5a-reductase 2, which It occurs only in men.
Semenya’s case did not have a happy ending for herso that in 2019with the new IAAF rules, Women with her characteristics were banned from competing in 400, 800 and 1,500 metre events until they took medication to lower their testosterone levels.
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