Algerian athlete Imane Khelif has been falsely accused of being transgender. The evidence? None. There is no documentation or test to prove that she is a man who has completed the transition. It is equally hard to believe that she is a transgender person representing the flag of Algeria, a country notoriously opposed to LGBTQ+ rights. Those who accused her of passing as a woman are those who judged her solely on her physical appearance and on the statements of the president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), Putin friend and Russian oligarch, Umar Kremlev, who accuses the Olympic Committee of endangering the lives of athletes who confront it. Leaving aside the political issue and how Russian propaganda exploits the opportunity, there is a curious detail in this story, which could lead Kremlev himself to condemn himself and resign for the sake of consistency.
Imane Khelif had previously competed in IBA international competitions, finishing second in the 2022 World Championships in Turkey. At the 2023 tournament in New Delhi, India, she was disqualified hours before the gold medal final. The decision was made and voted on by Kremlev himself, who said the next day that a DNA test would reveal that Khelif and another athlete had posed as women to compete in the tournament. However, the IBA itself does not confirm its president's statements in any way. In no statement or report from the association, the name of the test performed is mentioned and the athlete is not defined as a man or transgender.
Disqualification and the two tests
According to the Olympic website, until at least August 1, 2024, Imane Khelif's profile stated the alleged reason for her disqualification from the 2023 competition in India: high testosterone levels. This condition does not confirm the athlete's gender, as some women tend to produce higher than normal amounts of the hormone. On July 31, the IBA issued a statement stating that Imane Khelif was not disqualified from the tournament because of testosterone, but because of her results in two tests conducted in 2022 in Turkey and 2023 in India, respectively. It is unclear which test was used, but in the IBA Council minutes shared in the press release, some elements emerge that conflict with the misleading narrative being spread against the athlete.
On page 2 of the minutes of 25 March 2023, the day before the World Cup final in India, the discussion regarding the disqualification from the competition of Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting is reported. The introduction was made by the association's sports director, Marko Petric, stating that the two athletes “did not meet the admission rules following a test carried out by an independent laboratory”. It is not known which laboratory this was or what test was carried out. The minutes continue with a “dialogue” between President Kremlev and IBA Secretary General George A. Yerolimpos before the Council's final vote to ratify the disqualification of the two athletes.
The problem of disqualification as the final approaches
The main problem for the Council was the ratification of such a delicate decision at the end of the tournament, effectively excluding the Algerian athlete from the final. As the Secretary General explains, the athletes were immediately informed of the disqualification once the test results were obtained, giving them twenty-one days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS). An almost useless call, since the final was played the next day and saw the victory of the Chinese Yang Liu. Obviously, as we will discover later, such tests could not be carried out before the start of the tournament. However, the Council's request for clarification seems to be motivated by a fact that many are unaware of.
The Secretary General did indeed confirm to the Council that similar tests had been carried out on the same athletes by another “independent laboratory” during the 2022 World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey. Both, according to the statements in the minutes, were not disqualified from the competition because the results were only acquired by the association after the final, which Imane Khelif lost to Ireland’s Amy Broadhurst. Indeed, the Council minutes reveal that the IBA was in possession of the results of a test carried out in 2022, similar to the one in 2023, but this did not prevent the two athletes from participating in the competition in India.
The demand for preventive measures
IBA President Umar Kremlev intervened by asking the Secretary General whether it was possible to adopt preventive measures to not allow the athletes concerned to participate in the New Delhi tournament, given the results obtained in the 2022 tests, the Secretary General said. In general, in his response, he confirmed that the IBA had the results of the tests carried out in both competitions. However, Yerolimpos explained to the President that it had not been possible to carry out the 2023 test before the athletes arrived in New Delhi, that is, “when the athletes were outside the control of the IBA.”
The IBA Story and the 2022 Test
In fact, the IBA had subjected both athletes to an (unknown) test twice in two years, obtaining (undeclared) results that should have led to their disqualification from competitions in Turkey and India. If the test in question was a DNA test, finding XY chromosomes in Khelif and Taiwanese Yu-ting, why were they not excluded from all IBA competitions after the 2022 tournament?
According to the IBA, the two athletes should also have been excluded from the Paris 2024 Olympics to protect the health of other participants. In a subsequent statement, issued on August 1, the association reiterated its condemnation of the Olympic Committee, again citing the IBA minutes of March 25, 2023 and the two tests conducted during competitions in Turkey and India. This time, however, the IBA aligned itself with the president's speech, stating that it “will never support any boxing match based on gender.”
If the allegations regarding the alleged condition that would have put other athletes at risk (cit.) during the 2023 competition in India.
The alleged exclusion from all IBA competitions
There is another difference in the August 1 statement compared to the past. Following the controversy over Paris 2024, the IBA claims to “confirm” the exclusion of the two athletes from all the association's competitions, while the 2023 minutes and previous statements only mention a disqualification for the New Delhi World Cup. Even if we consider this condition as valid from March 25, 2023, it is significant to note that Imane Khelif's profile is still present on the official website and is still registered (perhaps for a short period) under the ID SD336. It is possible that they will have to update it, starting in 2023.
The question of the withdrawn appeal
In order to argue that Imane Khelif was a transsexual, many consider that the athlete confessed something by withdrawing the appeal against the 2023 disqualification ratified in the IBA minutes. An almost useless appeal for the needs of the competition in India, knowing that the final took place the day after the disqualification with the Thai Janjaem Suwannapheng in her place in the ring. If the exclusion from the tournament also resulted in the exclusion from any other competition organized by the association, this could be a valid reason to pursue legal proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS).
The appeal is mentioned in subsequent IBA reports, such as that of 13 May 2023, where the Tribunal identification code is also indicated (CAS 2023/A/9575). The last citation dates back to the report of 8 December 2023, in which the withdrawal of the Algerian athlete's appeal was announced, thus closing the case. The reason for this decision is not specified, but it is possible to envisage certain aspects of the matter related to the direct clash with the Olympic Committee and the 2024 Olympic Games themselves.
The IBA disclaimer and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Following the disqualification of Imane Khelif in June 2023, the IBA was derecognized as an international federation by the Olympic Committee. The reason was not strictly related to what happened to the two athletes, but rather to various failures on the part of the IBA following a suspension in 2019, related to its governance and alleged corruption issues. With this disavowal, the organization of the 2024 Olympics no longer belonged to the IBA, but to another entity specially created under the name of Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), which examined the eligibility criteria for Parisian competitions on the basis of a regulation prior to the IBA's suspension in 2019.
Following the IBA's disavowal, a new association called World Boxing is gradually establishing itself as an effective replacement in the management of the sport at the global level. From 2023, the tournaments organized by this new organization have been useful for participating in the 2024 Olympic Games. In a press release published on September 15, 2023, World Boxing announced the qualification of Algerian Imane Khelif. With the increasing imposition of this new sports entity, which sees Italy as a new member from July 26, 2024, the cessation of a dispute with the IBA, now unknown and devoid of its value, would be understandable.
Algeria, the LGBTQ+ issue and the passport
As everyone knows, this North African country is not a suitable place for homosexuals. Algeria has in fact been designated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for having approved “laws against the 'propaganda' or 'promotion' of 'non-traditional' sexual behaviour”. Amnesty International reports other cases in which the Algerian authorities have intervened against episodes of communication containing “symbols contrary to good morals” and deemed “contrary to the precepts of Islam and the values of Algerian society”. It is hard to believe that Algeria allowed for years a mysterious transsexual to compete under the Algerian flag in international competitions and at the Olympic Games, especially since transsexuals flee the country because they are persecuted.
According to the Olympic website, athletes' eligibility is based on the gender and age indicated on their passports, as was the case in previous Olympics. Khelif's Algerian documents list her as a woman, the same documents in the possession of the Olympic Committee, the Algerian federation and publicly shown by the athlete's father. Given the conditions for homosexuals in Algeria, it is difficult for Khelif to have been born a man and “pass as a woman.”
Another reflection on the issue could be a later discovery of the presence of XY chromosomes by the athlete, thus finding herself faced with a “genetic case” similar to that of the South African Caster Semenya, who discovered it as an adult. In this case, the accusations of transsexuality would still be dropped, but it is not known what could happen to her in her country and whether she will ever be able to compete again under the Algerian flag.
