{"id":456232,"date":"2026-02-05T21:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456232\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:14:08","slug":"cis-boxer-imane-khelif-says-shed-undergo-sex-testing-to-compete-in-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456232\/","title":{"rendered":"Cis boxer Imane Khelif says she’d undergo sex testing to compete in Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif says she is willing to undergo genetic sex testing to compete in the Olympics<\/a> should the International Olympic Committee (IOC) require it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I would accept doing anything\u202fI\u2019m\u202frequired to do to\u202fparticipate\u202fin competitions,\u201d the 26-year-old cisgender Algerian boxing champion told CNN<\/a> this week, stipulating that she would only submit to testing by the IOC.<\/p>\n

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According to CNN, Khelif\u2019s statement marks the first time she has publicly addressed the possibility of having to submit to genetic testing since World Boxing, the international governing body for amateur boxing, specifically named her in its announcement of a new policy requiring all athletes to undergo mandatory sex testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khelif was thrust into a media firestorm following her gold medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympic games, with figures like Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling falsely labeling her as transgender. (She sued them<\/a> in response.) <\/p>\n

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The International Boxing Association (IBA) had previously disqualified Khelif and Taiwanese gold medalist Lin Yu-ting from its 2023 World Championships, claiming they had failed sex eligibility tests. As The Athletic<\/a> notes, the IOC invalidated the IBA\u2019s authority ahead of the 2024 Paris Games, allowing Khelif and Lin to compete.<\/p>\n

Khelif told CNN and French sports outlet L\u2019Equipe this week that she has been reducing her naturally high levels of testosterone under medical supervision since before the 2024 Paris games qualifying tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its May 2025 press release, World Boxing explicitly cited the controversy around Khelif\u2019s 2024 win and said that it had informed the Algerian Boxing Federation that Khelif was banned from participating in the female category in World Boxing events until she agreed to undergo sex testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they published my name, they caused another crisis for me. They caused more discourse and another campaign against me,\u201d Khelif told CNN, adding that she believes racist political pressure from the far-right influenced World Boxing\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September, Khelif challenged World Boxing\u2019s policy<\/a> with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court rejected Khelif\u2019s request to temporarily lift the ban while her case proceeds, and a hearing on the case is still pending, according to The Athletic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As CNN notes, the IOC ended genetic testing requirements, which critics say hold female athletes to narrow biological standards and disproportionately affect women of color, nearly 30 years ago. But current IOC president Kristy Coventry has promised to work alongside President Donald Trump<\/a> to look at \u201cthe transgender issue\u201d following his February 2025 executive order<\/a> in which he promised to pressure the IOC into banning trans athletes from participating in women\u2019s competitions. <\/p>\n

In November, sources told The Guardian that the IOC appeared likely to ban trans women<\/a> from women\u2019s competitions ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. According to CNN, Coventry has not ruled out a return to mandatory genetic testing for female athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khelif told CNN that she respects the IOC\u2019s authority. \u201cThey should protect women, but they need to pay attention that while protecting women, they\u202fshouldn\u2019t hurt other women,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As CNN notes, Trump, who named himself chair of a White House Task Force on the 2028 Summer Olympics in August, has continued to cite Khelif\u2019s gold medal win in his efforts to ban trans women from women\u2019s sports. During a speech last month, he falsely claimed that Khelif is a \u201cyoung gentleman who transitioned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not transgender. I\u2019m a woman. I want to live my life,\u201d Khelif told CNN. \u201cPlease do not exploit me in your political\u202fagendas.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she admitted that being thrust into an international culture war around gender and sports following the 2024 Olympics cause \u201cpsychological trauma\u201d for her and her family, Khelif insisted, \u201cI am still here. I am still fighting. I am still boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the\u00a0LGBTQ Nation newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif says she is willing to undergo genetic sex testing to compete in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[100180,703,49,48,49885,10400,4963,7000,70101,82,187110],"class_list":["post-456232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-2028-los-angeles-olympics","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-imane-khelif","tag-life","tag-olympics","tag-post","tag-sex-testing","tag-sports","tag-transphobia-in-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}