JK Rowling and Elon Musk are among a host of high-profile people to be named in a cyberbullying lawsuit filed in France by Olympic champion boxer Imane Khelif.
The case relates to the gender eligibility storm that the 25-year-old Algerian has found herself embroiled in over the last two weeks, over the course of her Olypmic run. Khelif’s attorney, Nabil Boudi, said they had filed a criminal complaint over alleged “acts of cyber-harassment” to the Paris public prosecutor’s office on Friday.
It claims Khelif was the victim of “misogynistic, racist and sexist” cyberbullying. Boudi also said that the complaint mentioned famous figures too. “JK Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others,” he said, adding that Donald Trump could also be part of the lawsuit.
The controversy began two weeks ago, during the women’s round-of-16 boxing at the Olympics. Just 46 seconds after Italy’s Angela Carini and Algeria’s Imane Khelif stepped out into the ring, the match was over.
After 25-year-old Khelif landed one punch on the chinstrap of her Italian opponent, Carini immediately turned to her team and opted against continuing. “It’s not right, it’s not right,” she could be heard telling her coach. After withdrawing from the match, fell to her knees sobbing and refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the Algerian was declared the winner. Later, she told reporters she had never been hit so hard in her whole career.
“After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want. I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it.”
Khelif went on to win the Olympic gold last week, Algeria’s first boxer overall to win gold since 1996.
But, immediately after her fight with Carini, questions about Khelif’s gender began to swirl online, and the 46 second incident has become one of the most controversial moments from the Paris games. Khelif was born a woman and, until last year, had always competed in women’s boxing categories without controversy or attention.
However, at the 2023 women’s World Championships in New Delhi, she was disqualified for failing a gender eligibility test. At the same tournament, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, two-time world champion was also disqualified for failing to meet the gender eligibility criteria of the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Neither Khelif, nor 28-year-old Lin are transgender or intersex. The IBA didn’t specify why the boxers failed their gender eligibility tests but did said that neither underwent testosterone examinations, and it is thus far unclear what the gender tests consist of.
Still, prominent figures on social media slammed Khelif's participation at the Olympics. Author JK Rowling falsely referred to Khelif as “a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.” Meanwhile, X owner Elon Musk amplified a tweet from swimmer Riley Gaines that “men don't belong in women's sports.” British Olympic boxer Nicola Adams also weighed in, saying “people not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty, should not be able to compete in women’s sports…it’s dangerous!”.
Here is everything we know about the 25-year-old Algerian at the centre of an Olympics gender storm.
‘I started with nothing’ – defying gender stereotypes in rural Algeria
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Born in 1999 in a rural village in Tiaret, a province in northwestern Algeria, Khelif’s journey into boxing was far from straightforward. She originally started playing football in her village, but received pushback from people around her who believed girls shouldn’t play sport.
In an interview with UNICEF in March, Khelif recalled how boys in her village felt threatened by her football skills, and would pick fights with her. Dodging their punches, Khelif discovered that she was also pretty good at another sport – boxing.
However, embracing boxing turned out to be an even bigger hurdle than football for Khelif. Each week, she had to travel 10 kilometres to a neighbouring village to train, a fare she couldn’t afford. With her father in the Sahara desert as a welder—and disapproving of his daughter participating in boxing— Khelif had to find her own way. To gather enough money, she sold scrap metal for recycling, while her mother chipped in by selling couscous. Together, their efforts ensured Imane could catch the bus to town, enabling her to attend regular boxing training sessions.
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Despite initial resistance from her father, Khelif eventually gained support from both of her parents to pursue her career. “I started with nothing and now I have everything,” she told UNICEF. “Both my parents come to support me. They are my biggest fans.”
Khelif has also used her platform to speak about how important sport is in a country like Algeria where opportunities for girls in sport are limited. “Many parents are unaware of the advantages of sport, and how it can improve not only your physical fitness but also your mental wellbeing,” she told UNICEF.
‘A big conspiracy’ – disqualified from World Championships before her gold medal match
Until last year, Khelif had always competed in women’s boxing categories without controversy or attention.
At the 2018 Women's World Boxing Championships, she finished 17th after being eliminated in the first round by Karina Ibragimova. At the same tournament the following year, she came in 33rd after being beaten in the first round.
By the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Khelif was beginning to work her way up to the top of the sport, managing to make it to the quarterfinals. At the 2022 World Boxing Championships, she became the first Algerian female boxer to reach the final, but was defeated by Amy Broadhurst and finished as runner-up.
However, her career came to a halt in March last year, when she again reached the final of the World Boxing Championships. This time, however, she was disqualified shortly before the gold medal match for failing to meet eligibility criteria. The Algerian Olympic Committee stated that Khelif was disqualified for medical reasons.
At the same tournament, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, a two-time world champion, was also disqualified for failing to meet the gender eligibility criteria of the International Boxing Association (IBA). The IBA didn’t say why the boxers failed their gender eligibility tests, but did say that neither underwent testosterone examinations.
At the time, Khelif said the ruling meant having "characteristics that mean I can’t box with women", saying she was the victim of a "big conspiracy". She made an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport but later withdrew it.
While the World Championships were run by IBA, the association is no longer recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Instead, this summer’s Olympic boxing is being run by the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), established by the IOC’s Executive Board.
‘Baseless propaganda’ – Paris Olympics controversy
After Carini and Khelif’s match on August 1, misinformation quickly swirled online about Khelif’s gender, including claims that she was born biologically male.
Social media users were quick to weigh in on the controversy. In a tweet to her 14.2 million followers on X, JK Rowling posted a picture from Khelif’s fight with Carini and wrote: “The smirk of a male who 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.”
In another tweet, the author said: “I don’t claim Khelif is trans. My objection, and that of many others, is to male violence against women becoming an Olympic sport.”
X owner Elon Musk shared a post from the US swimmer Riley Gaines that said “men don’t belong in women’s sports” and added: “Absolutely.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump shared a picture from the fight with the caption: “I will keep men out of women’s sports!”
Judy Murray also slammed the decision to allow Khelif to compete, saying on X, “This should never have been allowed to happen. Bring back the swab test. Sport has to be fair and safe for biological women.”
Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance also shared his thoughts on X, saying: “This is where Kamala Harris’s ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match. This is disgusting and all of our leaders should condemn it.”
British Olympic boxer Nicola Adams also weighed in, saying “people not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty, should not be able to compete in women’s sports…it’s dangerous!”.
In a statement at the start of the tournament, the IOC said: “All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations in accordance with rules 1.4 and 3.1 of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.
“The PBU endeavoured to restrict amendments to minimise the impact on athletes’ preparation and guaranteeing consistency between Olympic Games.
Addressing the issue at a news conference, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said: “These boxers are completely eligible. They are women on their passports, they are women who have competed in the Tokyo Olympics and have been competing for many years, I think we all have a responsibility to tone it down and not turn it into a witch hunt.”
After Khelif’s match against Carini, the IOC and the Boxing Unit put out a further statement, saying: “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision. [It] was taken without any proper procedure—especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years. Such an approach is contrary to good governance.”
The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) also defended Khelif, denouncing what they called "unethical targeting" and "baseless propaganda" against her.
‘I am a woman’ – Khelif addresses the controversy after her gold medal win
Last Saturday, Khelif became an Olympic gold medallist for the first time as she defeated Yang Liu in the women’s 66kg category by unanimous decision. She sealed the victory to rapturous scenes at Roland Garros, as France’s Algerian diaspora showed up in numbers to rally around her, supporting her for every second of the gold medal bout.
“As for whether I qualify or not, whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media,” Khelif said after her victory. “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I lived a woman, I competed as a woman, there’s no doubt about that. [The detractors] are enemies of success, that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
“My honour is intact now,” Khelif continued. “But the attacks that I heard in social media were extremely bad and they are meaningless and they impact the dignity of people and I think that now people’s thinking has changed.
“As for the IBA, since 2018 I have been boxing under their umbrella. They know me very well, they know what I’m capable of, they know how I’ve developed over the years but now they are not recognised any more. They hate me and I don’t know why. I send them a single message: with this gold medal, my dignity, my honour is above everything else.”
In the past, Khelif has said that she is proud of her ability to overcome obstacles, including finding success in a sport that her father didn’t approve of girls participating in. “My dream is to win a gold medal,” she said in March. “I particularly want to inspire girls.” If the last two weeks have shown anything, it is that Khelif is certainly inspirational.
