The Fall of Imane Khelif
- Marc Reisinger
- 7 juin
- 4 min de lecture
Dernière mise à jour : 10 juin
The female boxer was a male
New evidence has emerged, piecing together the astonishing journey of Imane Khelif, whose gold medal win in women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics sparked global controversy. What initially seemed like a blatant deception now reveals a more complex tale—a Dickensian saga of a poor girl from rural Algeria who nearly grasped glory through a state-backed ruse that has since unraveled. An investigation by the online outlet Le Correspondant, led by Franco-Algerian journalist Djaffer Ait Aoudia, alongside other corroborating documents, sheds light on this extraordinary case.
A Young Athlete’s Beginnings
Imane Khelif was born into a poor family in a remote Algerian town. At six, her passion for sports shone through as she played soccer with the boys in her village, standing out for her physical strength. At 16, on the advice of a friend’s brother, she joined a boxing club in Tiaret, 10 kilometers from home, where a coach was building a women’s team.
During a routine medical exam, Dr. Nacera Ammoura noticed Khelif’s unusually hairy chest and requested she remove her shorts for further inspection. Khelif reacted with outrage, threatening to involve her father and file a complaint. Undeterred, Dr. Ammoura, backed by sports medicine colleagues, sought to determine Khelif’s biological sex through a karyotype test in France. Khelif refused, and the medical team lacked the authority to enforce it. Only the Algerian Boxing Federation could intervene, but when Dr. Ammoura escalated the issue in an April 2018 report, the federation’s director, after consulting the sports minister, sidelined the doctor.
An endocrinologist 400 kilometers away issued a cursory certificate in September 2018: “Normal hormonal profile… female sex.” Khelif continued training, competing internationally in Las Vegas and Florida, wielding the questionable certificate whenever her gender was challenged.
A State-Sponsored Deception
The cover-up, orchestrated by the Algerian Olympic Committee’s Secretary General and then-Sports Minister Abderrahmane Hammad, fueled Khelif’s rise over five years. In 2018, she placed 17th at the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi; in 2019, she competed in Russia’s World Championships and the African Games; in 2020, she reached the Tokyo Olympics quarterfinals; and in 2022, she won gold at the Strandja Memorial, silver at the World Championships in Istanbul, and gold at the Mediterranean Games in Oran and the African Championships in Maputo.
The facade crumbled in March 2023 when the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Khelif from the New Delhi World Championships after a chromosomal test revealed an XY karyotype, indicating male biology. The IBA stated,
“Based on DNA test results, we identified athletes who attempted to deceive their peers by posing as women. These athletes, with XY chromosomes, were excluded.”
The IBA’s Russian leadership led to accusations of “Putin’s propaganda,” with Morocco and “Zionists” also bizarrely blamed. A second test in Delhi confirmed the XY result, yet Khelif’s team pressed on, fully aware of the findings.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), overseeing the 2024 Paris Games, allowed Khelif to compete based solely on her passport, dismissing medical evidence. Khelif won gold, defeating Italy’s Angela Carini (who withdrew after 46 seconds), Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, and China’s Yang Liu in the final.
A Global Controversy Erupts
The Paris Olympics, launched with a celebration of progressive ideals, became a flashpoint. Conservative figures like JK Rowling and Elon Musk faced accusations of spreading “baseless rumors” about Khelif’s gender. Khelif threatened legal action over online harassment and alleged medical leaks, while paradoxically being championed as an LGBTQ+ icon by gender advocates—despite her insistence she was a woman, knowing her XY test results.
In October 2024, Le Correspondant revealed a June 2023 report by Professor Young at Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris, confirming Khelif’s XY karyotype and diagnosing a rare genetic condition: 5-alpha-reductase type 2 deficiency (5-AR2).
This disorder impairs the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), critical for male sexual development, often resulting in ambiguous or female-appearing genitalia at birth. At puberty, testosterone can drive male traits like increased muscle mass, though secondary characteristics like facial hair may be less pronounced. Professor Young noted Khelif lacked breasts and ovaries, had normal-sized testes in the abdomen producing male testosterone levels, a short vagina, no uterus, and clitoral hypertrophy.
Defining Biological Sex
The woke-era confusion around sex and gender requires clarity: biological sex is determined by karyotype (XX or XY) and gonads (ovaries or testes). Individuals with 5-AR2 deficiency are biologically male, with XY chromosomes and functional testes, despite ambiguous or feminized external features due to DHT deficiency. This is pseudo-hermaphroditism, distinct from true hermaphroditism, where both ovarian and testicular tissue coexist.
The IOC, informed of Professor Young’s findings in June 2023, dismissed them, stating it relied on “sovereign decisions” rather than medical evidence. A Bulgarian-Nigerian boxer, Joana Nwamerue, who sparred with Khelif in Sofia in February 2024, claimed Khelif fought with “male power and techniques.” The Algerian team brushed it off, bizarrely suggesting Khelif’s biology was altered by “living in the mountains.”
The House of Cards Collapses
On May 30, 2025, World Boxing, the new global boxing authority for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, announced that XY-karyotype athletes would be barred from women’s categories. Its president specified that Khelif must undergo testing to compete, starting with the Women’s Eindhoven Cup (June 5–10, 2025). Khelif’s absence from the event was tantamount to an admission.
The international press erupted: “Imane Khelif scandal brings everlasting shame on the IOC,” declared The Daily Telegraph (June 3, 2025). Much of the French media stayed silent, while Libération (June 2, 2025) decried “toxic speculation” about Khelif’s gender, defending her as a trans icon.
Meanwhile, Algeria’s new Sports Minister, Walid Sadi, replaced Hammad on November 18, 2024, amid reports that the Algerian presidency, with intelligence services’ help, sought to bury the scandal—especially after U.S. President Donald Trump denied Khelif a visa for the 2028 Olympics.
Like Icarus, Imane Khelif soared too high and fell. Her story, a blend of ambition, deception, and systemic failure, leaves a lasting stain on the IOC and a cautionary tale for the future of fair competition.
JK Rowling isn't a conservative, she's a left-wing feminist and sees the Khelif case through that perspective.