Claim: The World Boxing Organization (WBO) has “revoked” Imane Khelif’s gold medal after confirming that she “is male” and that the Olympic boxing athlete now “faces a lifetime ban”.
Fact: The boxing body has made no such announcement, it confirmed in a statement. Furthermore, Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman.
On 11 October 2024, Threads user @ctupramod claimed (archive) that Algerian boxing star Imane Khelif “faces a lifetime ban after the WBO confirmed she is male and revoked her gold medal”.
@ctupramod, who attached pictures of Khelif in their post, wrote:
“‘GOODBYE OLYMPIC LIAR’ Imane Khelif, The Controversial Gender Identity Boxer, Faces A Lifetime Ban After The WBO Confirmed She Is Male And Revoked Her Gold Medal.”
Other posts that we came across — viewable here, here, and here — also included links in their respective first comments to websites, such as this, this, and this, that published the same claim but without any evidence.
Khelif beat China’s Yang Liu on 9 August 2024 to become the first Algerian woman to win a gold medal in boxing in the 2024 Olympic Games held in Paris, France. A conspiracy theory that she was actually male or a transgender woman chased her during the entire season, especially after Italy’s Angela Carini quit the fight with her in less than a minute.
A ‘transvestigation’
During the 2024 Olympic Games, Khelif was subjected to “transvestigation”, which is defined as a conspiracy theory that purposefully targets “maliciously targets cisgender public figures … then ‘investigates’ them offering fake pseudo-scientific ‘evidence’ that they are transgender”, according to the non-profit advocacy organization GLAAD.
The claim that Khelif was a “biological male” and identifies as a transgender woman had spread rapidly on social media and mainstream news outlets, with many criticising the Algerian boxer for allegedly inflicting violence on her Italian opponent, as well as the Olympics for allowing a fight between a female and a male boxer.
Among those who went after Khelif were multiple conservative and right-wing individuals, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk, British media personality Piers Morgan, and US President-elect Donald Trump. She has filed (archive) a criminal complaint for alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” to French authorities through her Paris-based attorney, Nabil Boudi.
The Algerian was apparently tested and disqualified (archive) by the now-banned International Boxing Association (IBA) in the 2023 championships over gender test results that the organisation never revealed nor explained. The “suspicious” decision by the Russian boxing organisation, which hosts the World Boxing Championships, came right after she defeated the country’s boxer, Azalia Amineva, during the event held in New Delhi. Khelif termed the move a “conspiracy”.
The IBA refused to explain which rule was breached, citing athletes’ “personal and medical privacy”, AFP had written (archive) at the time, adding that “Algerian media reported the 23-year-old had failed a hormone test, returning an elevated testosterone level”. In a statement issued 31 July 2024, the IBA stood by its decision taken on 24 March 2023.
The IBA’s credibility has been questioned time and again and it was dropped and stripped of its status by the IOC, which now oversees boxing for the time being via the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU). The Russian body is marred by “a history of judging and bribery scandals”, match-fixing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, concerns over a lack of transparency, corruption and financial mismanagement, questionable ethics, and the support it receives from the Russian energy company Gazprom, as well as its marketing expenditures that appear to focus on its president, Kremlev, and his linkages (archive) “to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin”.
The IOC defended Khelif and issued a statement (archive), terming the IBA’s 2023 move a “sudden and arbitrary decision”. Its president, Thomas Bach (archive), also defended her as did its spokesperson, Mark Adams (archive).
Khelif has confirmed (archive) that she’s a woman and her father, Amar Khelif, as well as uncle, Rachid Jabeur, have also spoken in her favour. Reuters reported that Amar produced an official document, apparently a birth certificate, dated 2 May 1999, that confirmed Khelif was born a female and pictures published by Daily Mail’s website, MailOnline, show the Algerian athlete as a young girl with her siblings. The Associated Press also wrote that Khelif’s passport says she was assigned female at birth.
An investigation by Soch Fact Check into the claim that Khelif is trans or was born male is available here.
Fact or Fiction?
A Google search for the claim did not yield any results and there are no credible reports on the same by any reputable media outlet either. There was nothing about the same on Khelif’s Instagram account either nor on the News and Press Releases sections of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) website.
The Algerian boxer is still listed as the Gold medal winner on the IOC’s website.
We then looked up the WBO’s social media accounts and found a statement it issued on 11 October 2024; it is available on Facebook, X, and Instagram (archived here, here, and here, respectively).
In its statement, the WBO said reports that the body had banned Khelif “are false” and that it had “not tested or sanctioned the Olympic gold medalist in any way”.
It also quoted its legal counsel, Gustavo Olivieri, Esq., as saying, “The report claiming that the WBO had banned Khelif are obviously false. We have had no communication with Khelif. We congratulate her and wish her luck in all her future endeavors. Any report stating otherwise is obviously fake and ill intentioned. She worked hard to earn that medal.”
In a 4 October post on Facebook, the Algerian Boxing Federation said “all the false news about Algerian boxing in general and the Olympic champion Imane Khelif (especially) is bare of the truth and has no connection to the International Olympic Commission” and that it was “just a systematic campaign against Algeria”.
According to Reuters Fact Check, which is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory, an IOC spokesperson refuted the posts, saying, “There is absolutely no truth in these claims.” The publication also noted that Mohamed Chaoua, Khelif’s coach, denied the claim.
The claim has been circulating since as early as 23 September 2024, according to USA Today, also an IFCN signatory. In the instances quoted, the posts also refer to Khelif losing prize money worth $25 million. “There’s no evidence she ever received – much less lost – an award of that amount,” the publication wrote.
Soch Fact Check has investigated multiple claims about Khelif in the past, including that she’s trans or was born male and that a South Park character is comparable to her.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim here and here on Threads and here and here on X.
It was also shared here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, as well as on Facebook here, here, here, here, and here.
One of the most viral Facebook posts received over 2,300 reactions, more than 600 comments, and upwards of 480 shares.
Conclusion: The WBO denied the claim in a statement, saying the body made no such announcement. Furthermore, Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman.
Background image in cover photo: Amin Zabardast
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