{"id":418407,"date":"2026-02-10T17:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418407\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:47:12","slug":"imane-khelifs-critics-have-been-vindicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418407\/","title":{"rendered":"Imane Khelif\u2019s critics have been vindicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became notorious at the Paris Olympics in 2024, winning gold in the women\u2019s welterweight division despite allegations that Khelif was biologically male. Well, Khelif made an astonishing admission<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Speaking to French magazine L\u2019Equipe, Khelif admitted to having not just a \u2018female phenotype\u2019, but also the SRY gene. This gene is essentially the \u2018start button\u2019 of male development, triggering the formation of testes. You heard that right. In a dangerous contact sport, one competitor in the female category has just admitted to having male biology.<\/p>\n

What makes this admission more remarkable is that for the past few years, anyone who questioned Khelif\u2019s claim to be a woman was branded a \u2018bigot\u2019. \u2018Gender essentialists have issues with strong Olympians\u2019, insisted one publication<\/a>, scolding the \u2018weirdos\u2019 who speculate \u2018on the genitalia of Olympic athletes\u2019. Khelif\u2019s \u2018progressive\u2019 champions claimed that JK Rowling, Elon Musk and others criticising the presence of men in women\u2019s sports<\/a> were waging a campaign of \u2018cyberbullying\u2019 and \u2018misogynist, racist and sexist harassment\u2019. Sports presenter Laura Woods<\/a> even received death threats after showing support for an article highlighting the danger Khelif\u2019s presence in the women\u2019s category posed to female athletes.<\/p>\n

For those wondering if an apology is in the works now that Khelif has admitted the truth, I wouldn\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

After all, Khelif and those supporting the boxer have ridden out similar storms of controversy before. In 2023, the International Boxing Association\u2019s (IBA) sex tests indicated that Khelif was in possession of a male Y chromosome. The IBA promptly banned Khelif from all its competitions, citing<\/a> unfair \u2018competitive advantages over other female competitors\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yet Khelif continued to try to fight in the women\u2019s category, aided and abetted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Operating under its 2021 framework<\/a> that all athletes \u2018be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity\u2019, the IOC allowed Khelif to participate in the women\u2019s welterweight category at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It was a devastating decision. Khelif\u2019s very first match at the Olympics, against Italy\u2019s Carini, lasted all of 46 seconds. Carini was punched twice with a strength she had \u2018never felt\u2019 before, leaving her weeping on her knees in the ring. Khelif swept aside all her opponents with similarly brutal ease.<\/p>\n

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The IOC may have since announced plans to amend its policy on transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports, but so far nothing has actually changed. Little wonder perhaps that Khelif is only willing to undergo eligibility testing \u2018administered by the IOC\u2019 \u2013 presumably due to its reliable track record of throwing female athletes under the bus. \u2018It is not as easy as some may in this culture war\u2026 want to portray it\u2019, said IOC president Thomas Bach of the Khelif scandal back in 2024. In other words, protecting women comes second to stroking the IOC\u2019s own \u2018progressive\u2019 sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Khelif is still determined to fight as a woman at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, insisting<\/a> that \u2018I am not a transwoman, I am a girl\u2019. \u2018I was raised as a girl, I grew up as a girl, the people in my village have always known me as a girl.\u2019 Khelif goes on to say that critics, including US president Donald Trump, \u2018cannot distort the truth\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where was this commitment to the truth when female opponents were being socked in the face by an opponent who had undergone an unspecified degree of male development? How is such information on the biological make-up of Khelif being added like a footnote, years after the fact, in a sport where a category error can result in serious physical injury?<\/p>\n

If the IOC had an ounce of integrity, Khelif never would have been in the ring with Carini \u2013 or any female athlete for that matter. Its policy of endless \u2018inclusivity\u2019 has resulted in deep sporting injustice. Far from flinging the doors wide open to everyone, the IOC\u2019s only achievement is convincing the next generation of girls in sport that maybe they shouldn\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n

Georgina Mumford is a content producer at spiked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became notorious at the Paris Olympics in 2024, winning gold in the women\u2019s welterweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,5905,101,52216,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-418407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-olympics","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-transgender","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}