Imane Khelif was once diagnosed with high male hormones but was still allowed to participate in the Olympics.
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| Imane Khelif shows her superior strength in women’s boxing. |
In 2023, Imane Khelif was disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) just hours before her women’s world championship match in Delhi. The reason for the disqualification was that she had too high a level of testosterone (a male hormone) in her body.
“Imane’s DNA test showed that he has a male XY chromosome, so he was disqualified,” IBA President Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS.
Despite the IBA’s findings, Imane Khelif is still allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics this summer. That’s because the IBA is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC said the source of money at the International Boxing Association is unclear.
“IBA refused to explain the transparency of its funding and did not appear to be fully financially dependent on a single state-owned company, Gazprom, at the time,” the IOC said.
The IBA is not recognized by the IOC, which means Imane’s assessment is also unprecedented. The IOC conducted its own examination under the supervision of the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), a special unit of the IOC Executive Board. The results showed that Imane was eligible to compete at the Olympics.
“All the athletes competing in the women’s category complied with the eligibility rules. They were women in their passports and clearly stated that they were women,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.
In her first Olympic boxing match, Imane showed her superior strength and forced her Italian opponent to submit after just 46 minutes. Carini said she had never seen a female boxer punch so hard, even revealing that she could not breathe after being punched a second time in the nose.
Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur, also expressed outrage at Imane’s participation in the Olympics: “Angela Carini was right to follow her instincts to protect herself. She and other female athletes are being subjected to violence.”
Meanwhile, the Alegria Olympic Committee came to Imane’s defense, calling the criticism “a malicious and unethical attack on Imane Khelif.”
