![Imane Khelif]()
The 2024 Paris Olympic might be over, but the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif is still unfolding.
There was a lot of tension when it came to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif competing in this year’s Olympic games. One of Khelif’s early matchups, which saw the Algerian box against Italy’s Angela Carini,
only lasted 46 seconds. That’s because the clearly outmatched Carini flew the white flag after taking multiple hits and being punched in the nose.
She called it the hardest she's ever been hit. But the short nature of that fight wasn’t what drew in all of the attention. Instead, it was the fact that the Algerian boxer’s biological gender was in question throughout the games. Khelif had been disqualified from competing in previous women’s tournaments (like those sanctioned by the International Boxing Association) because of elevated levels of testosterone, as well as possessing an XY chromosome (males have XY chromosomes, while females have XX chromosomes).
Most recently, she was banned from the 2023 World Championships by IBA, and although she initially appealed that decision, she eventually withdrew her appeal. Despite those findings, it’s important to note that Khelif has never explicitly identified as male, transgender or intersex. Throughout Khelif’s many years of competition, the Algerian boxer has always competed as a female, and even did so in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in which Khelif quietly lost in the quarterfinals. It's unclear what testing, if any, the Paris 2024 Olympics conducted to verify her gender.
But in these games, even with all of the controversy swirling around Khelif, the Algerian boxer came away victorious. China’s Yang Liu lost to Khelif in the women’s welterweight final, so Imane took home the gold medal after a unanimous 5-0 decision. Many online were calling for the Algerian to be disqualified, and other significant celebrity and political figures were saying that Khelif shouldn't have been allowed to compete in the first place.
Some of those people are now being sued by the Algerian boxer for some of the things they said. Musk reposted a message (from swimmer Riley Gaines) that stated "men don't belong in women's sports" and added, "Absolutely." J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter book series, shared a still photo from Khelif's controversial, lopsided fight and said that boxer was enjoying "the distress of a woman that he punched in the head."
Both Musk and Rowling, along with Donald Trump pending an investigation into the messaging the former president shared, are being sued for alleged aggravated cyber harassment.
https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1823476496230432951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1823476496230432951%7Ctwgr%5Ea1af4781023e5f94eab50d2a18cb4d2c2b7da446%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D603796action%3Dedit
If you're like me, you probably didn't even know that you could be sued for cyberbullying.
But Nabil Boudi, Khelif’s Paris-based lawyer, made things very clear when providing this statement in regards to the suit being brought against those that spoke against the Algerian boxer:
"The lawsuit was filed against X, which under French law means that it was filed against unknown persons. That ‘ensures that the prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,’ including those who may have written hateful messages under pseudonyms.
J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others. Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution."
The situation will continue to unravel in the coming weeks, but Khelif's golden Olympic moment has definitely a tarnished one.
This news also comes out just as her former sparring partner, Bulgarian-Nigerian women’s boxer Joana Nwamerue, also claimed that she was a man. Nwamerue told
Reduxx that she had her fought Imane a handful of times, and would remain convinced until Imane proved otherwise:
"He is a man. I will stay by my words until he/she does a test to prove to the world that he/she is a woman. But we all know that won’t happen."
