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Imane Khelif defeated all opponents at the Paris Olympics, and now the Algerian boxer is turning her attention to a new battle.
Khelif earned a gold medal on August 9, beating China’s Yang Liu to win the women’s welterweight final at the Summer Games. But Khelif also weathered a controversy that was sparked when the since-discredited International Boxing Association (IBA) released a statement saying she had been disqualified from the 2023 world championship due to a “failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition.”
That led to false reports that Khelif was transgender or “biologically male,” assertions that were disputed both by Olympic officials and Khelif’s own father, who produced a birth document showing that she was born female.
Khelif is now planning more action, with Sky News reporting that she filed a legal complaint with the Paris Prosecutor’s Office over the online harassment she had faced.
Imane Khelif Speaks Out After Winning Gold
After she earned the gold medal, Khelif pushed back against false statements spread on social media. In the days after the IBA’s statement, a number of prominent figures including former U.S. President Donald Trump and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling took to social media to criticize Khelif.
“All that is being said about me on social media is immoral. I want to change the minds of people around the world,” the Algerian boxer said, via Sky News.
Khelif added that her gold medal felt like an even bigger accomplishment given all that she had to endure during the Paris Olympics.
“That also gives my success a special taste because of those attacks,” she said.
“I’m fully qualified to take part in this competition,” Khelif added. “I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born as a woman, I live as a woman, and I am qualified.”
The IBA had already been under controversy at the time it released the statement, which also took aim at boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, saying she had also failed an unspecified gender test in 2023. The IBA had been stripped of its governing power for the Paris Olympics over allegations of corruption, with the International Olympic Committee taking over.
Like Khelif, Yu-ting also won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Lawyer Discusses Legal Action
Nabil Boudi, an attorney representing Khelif, took to social media to share more details on the legal action filed this week. Boudi said the action would take aim at the “cyber harassment” that Khelif faced, but did not mention any specific individuals or actions targeted.
“Having just won a gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, boxer Imane Khelif has decided to lead a new fight: that of justice, dignity and honor,” Boudi wrote, via ESPN.
“Ms. Khelif contacted the firm, which filed a complaint yesterday for acts of aggravated cyber harassment with the anti-online hatred center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office.”
Boudi wrote that he asked officials in Paris to launch a criminal investigation to determine who started the “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign” against Khelif, ESPN reported.
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