Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who is competing in the women’s division of the sport at the Paris Olympics, is a woman who was assigned female at birth—not a transgender athlete, despite Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and others claiming she is a “biological man.”
Many people, including International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, began spreading false claims about Khelif’s gender after she won a match against Italian boxer Angela Carini on Aug. 1. Khelif swiftly overtook Carini in the match, and the Italian boxer quit fighting after 46 seconds, giving Khelif the win.
“Angela Carini should never have been forced to compete against a biological man. This is why defending women’s sports is so important and why I will continue to fight to protect Title IX,” Fitch said in a tweet on Aug. 1. For years, she has opposed transgender rights, including by signing onto the so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights.”
Carini told reporters after the Aug. 1 fight that it was not her place to determine who is eligible to compete in the Olympics.
“If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide,” Carini told reporters in Paris on Aug. 1.
Khelif competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and has won awards at world boxing tournaments in the women’s divisions.
In 2023, the International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif during the world boxing tournament because the organization claimed “her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria,” Slate reported. Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting also faced a flurry of misconceptions about her gender after she failed a gender eligibility test at the tournament. But the IBA has not provided details on how it came to those conclusions or its methodologies. The International Olympic Committee banned the IBA from the Olympics last year following years of controversy, including over a lack of transparency and its ties to a Russian state energy firm.
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