By Richard Lough
PARIS (Reuters) – Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has been at the centre of a debate about gender in sport after her Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the contest.
Khelif failed unspecified International Boxing Association gender eligibility tests in 2023. The International Olympic Committee says she has the right to compete as a woman.
Here’s what you need to know about Khelif and the row she has found herself embroiled in.
WHO IS IMANE KHELIF?
Khelif, born in 1999, grew up playing soccer in her rural village in Tiaret, western Algeria. Now an ambassador for UNICEF, she previously told the U.N. children’s agency that it had been ducking the punches of local boys that got her into boxing aged 16.
Training was not easy. With her father working as a welder in the desert, she would sell scrap metal and her mother’s couscous to raise the bus fare for the 10 km (6 mile) ride to the nearest gym.
“It’s being able to overcome the obstacles in my life,” she is quoted as saying in her UNICEF biography when asked what makes her most proud.
HOW HAS KHELIF’S CAREER PROGRESSED TO DATE?
Khelif swiftly caught the attention of the Algerian boxing federation and she competed at the 2018 women’s World Championships, where she came 17th after being eliminated in the first round.
She represented Algeria at the Tokyo Olympics where she was defeated by Ireland’s Kellie Harrington in the quarter-finals. In 2022, Khelif secured a second-place finish in the women’s World Championships after losing to Ireland’s Amy Broadhurst.
In 2023, hours before she was due to box for gold at the World Championships in Delhi, Khelif was disqualified for failing to meet International Boxing Association eligibility criteria.
WHAT DO THOSE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA SAY?
Khelif and a second boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, fell foul of IBA eligibility rules, which include preventing athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.
The IBA says neither boxer underwent a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test. The IBA says the specifics of those tests remain confidential but said they showed both gained a competitive advantage.
The minutes of a March 2023 IBA board meeting stated that “the athletes do not meet one of the eligibility criteria”, without stating which one. They do not state whether she has XY chromosomes which are usually associated with men, but can be an indication in females of a difference of sexual development. Neither boxer has ever been shown to have the genetic condition.
WHY HAS THE GENDER ROW RESURFACED IN PARIS?
In June 2023, the International Olympic Committee stripped the IBA of its status as the global governing body for boxing because of failures to complete reforms on governance, finance and ethical issues.
The IOC is therefore running the boxing competition at the Paris Games and allowed Khelif and Lin to compete under its own eligibility guidelines.
When Khelif’s Italian opponent Angela Carini abandoned their Round of 16 welterweight bout less than a minute into the contest after receiving several heavy blows, it fuelled the gender debate.
Tesla founder Elon Musk, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and author J.K. Rowling have criticised Khelif’s participation in the Games.
Kheireddine Barbari, the head of the Algerian delegation at the Paris Olympics, said the Algerian Olympic Committee supported Khelif and had filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee over the “immoral” campaign.
Khelif’s father described the attacks against his daughter as “immoral”. She had brought the family honour, he said.
WHAT DOES THE IOC SAY?
The latest IOC guidelines issued in 2021 state that inclusion should be the default in such cases and that athletes should only be excluded from women’s competition if there are clear fairness or safety issues.
IOC Thomas Bach said: “We have two boxers who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women and who have competed for many years as women and this is a clear definition of a woman.”
The IOC has also said Khelif and Lin were “victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” and that they were disqualified in 2023 without any due process.
The boxers fought in the women’s category before their 2023 disqualification, including in the Tokyo Games and previous IBA-sanctioned World Championships and tournaments without issue, the IOC has said.
(Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Alison Williams)
