No, Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif is not a transgender woman

Context

Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has been at the center of a media storm following her win against Italian opponent Angela Carini at a Paris 2024 Olympic Games preliminary welterweight (66kg) bout on Thursday, August 1. Carini quit within 46 seconds following a strike to the face, which she said resulted in "severe pain" to her nose. 

Following the victory, allegations circulated on social media of Khelif being a biological male. These allegations went viral after prominent figures, including Harry Potter author J.K Rowling, accused Khelif of being male and accused the Olympic committee of being misogynistic.

"Could any picture sum up our new men's rights movement better?" Rowling posted on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a photograph of the two boxers in the ring (archived here). "The smirk of a male who's [sic] knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head, and whose life's ambition he's just shattered."

The post has had over 88 million views and has been shared over 81,900 times. Other accounts posted similar allegations (examples archived here, here, and here), which were reshared thousands of times. Claims that Khelif is a trans woman were soon trending on the platform.

But Khelif is not a trans woman and there is no evidence she is a biological male. Both Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting are women who have faced speculations about their biological sex in the lead-up to the Olympics. 

Khelif's IBA gender eligibility test

Khelif is an Algerian boxer born on May 2, 1999, who has competed professionally since 2018. Her first Olympic appearance was at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she was defeated in the quarter-finals by Irish boxer Kellie Harrington. She subsequently won the African and Mediterranean Championships in 2022 and made it to the final of the World Championships, where she was defeated by Ireland's Amy Broadhurst and won silver. 

However, in 2023, she and Lin Yu-Ting were disqualified from the World Championships. The International Boxing Association (IBA) said the decision was based on their failure to pass gender eligibility criteria, which included a test. 

IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian state-owned media organization Tass in March 2023 that the decision was made after the athletes were found to have XY chromosomes. However, this has not been substantiated by any evidence, and the IBA has not confirmed Kremlev's statement.

"Point to note, the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential," the IBA said in a statement published on July 31. "This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors."

IBA no longer recognized by the Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew its recognition of the IBA in June 2023 after it failed to complete reforms on governance, financial, and ethical issues. The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld this decision, dismissing the IBA's appeal in April 2024.

The IOC subsequently set up boxing units to allow athletes to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games. According to a statement released by the IOC on August 1, all athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics have met the medical eligibility criteria established after the 2016 Rio Olympics. The IOC has since defended its decision to allow the two athletes to compete.

"These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process," the IOC statement says. 

It further states that the decision to suspend Yu-Ting and Khelif was taken solely by the secretary general and CEO of IBA without a clear procedure, and the procedure to test participants' sex was only ratified after the athletes were suspended. 

"The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years," it continued. 

"Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence."

The IBA has since published a statement doubling down on its earlier decision to disqualify Khelif and Yu-Ting. The statement states that the two failed independent "trustworthy" gender eligibility tests, but it provides no specifics on what these tests were. 

No evidence that Khelif is biologically male

We have not found any evidence that Khelif is biologically male. 

Algeria does not allow people to change their legal gender. While there are no laws explicitly criminalizing gender transitioning, it is de facto criminalized by penal codes that prohibit acts deemed "indecent." Algerian courts have previously ruled that gender-affirming care is "incompatible with human nature," effectively banning it within the country. It is, therefore, not plausible that the country would allow a trans woman to represent it at the Olympics. 

Photos claiming to show Khelif as a young girl have gone viral on social media. However, these photos have not been verified by any reputable sources. 

Others have also taken to social media to voice their support for Khelif. This includes Olympic boxer Amy Broadhurst, who previously beat Khelif at the 2022 World Championships.

"Personally I don't think she has done anything to 'cheat'. I thinks it's the way she was born & that's out of her control," Broadhurst posted on X. "The fact that she has been beating [sic] by 9 females before says it all."

Logically Facts has contacted the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee for comment. 

The verdict

Prominent social media users, including British author J.K. Rowling, have posted viral claims alleging Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is a biological male. Other social media users have stated that Khelif is a transgender woman. However, Khelif is not trans. She has previously failed an unspecified gender eligibility test by the IBA, which the IOC no longer recognizes. The IOC has published statements confirming that she has met all their competition eligibility criteria. Algeria does not legally recognize gender transition, and there is no evidence that Khelif is biologically male. We have, therefore, rated this claim as false.

(Update: This fact-check was updated on August 12 to clarify that the IBA has not refused but just not confirmed the statement Umar Kremlev gave to TASS in March 2023, and to clarify that J.K. Rowling did not mention in her Tweet about Khelif being a transgender woman. We have updated the cover picture to avoid any confusion.)