The world of sports is no stranger to controversy, nowhere more so than at the Olympics, a competition that ironically, is meant to celebrate global unity and harmony, yet the desire for a gold medal generates the fiercest determination to win.
One such story is that of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer whose participation in the women’s boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympics became a focal point of heated debate.
Khelif, born and raised as a woman, has competed in the women’s boxing division despite having on multiple occasions failed an eligibility test for participation in women’s competitions due to her naturally high levels of testosterone. What’s more, Khelif was born with an XY combination of chromosomes and this has led critics to misunderstand the situation and label her as a transgender woman. Trans women in sports is an incendiary topic and there is much debate about whether to instate bans against their participation in women’s sports, starting at the youngest level.
Khelif most probably is affected by DSD, (differences in sexual development), a group of conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Specifically, speculation suggests that she suffers from Swyer Syndrome.
Some people with DSDs that are raised as female may have sex chromosomes other than XX, or potentially also elevated testosterone levels, according to NIH, but this does not define them as male.
It is not true that athletes with variations in their sex traits, or DSDs, are the same as transgender athletes. Conflating the two is considered to be inaccurate. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the boxing community rallied behind Khelif, denouncing the hate speech and misinformation that clouded her victory. Thomas Bach, the IOC President, defended Khelif’s participation, emphasizing the unacceptability of the concerns over her gender identity.
Nevertheless, Khelif received a great deal of hate, especially after Italian Angela Carini threw in the towel after just two punches in her bout with the Algerian.
In the end Khelif won the gold medal in the event. While she remained relatively silent as the controversy was raging, when it was over she let loose in an interview: “I am a woman, like any other woman. I lived [as a] woman, there is no doubt of that.” She went on to call her critics, “enemies of success” and asserted that the controversy only gave her success a special taste.
She dedicated her medal to the world, to all Arabs, and proudly declared, “Long live Algeria!”
