Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has seized upon an unverified report about gold medalist Imane Khelif’s gender to double down on her claim that the Algerian boxer should not have been allowed to fight women at the Paris Olympics.
‘And her we are,’ Navratilova wrote on X. ‘… Imane might have been raised as a woman but Imane is a biological male and should not have been allowed to box at the Olympics.’
Khelif and Taiwan‘s Lin Yu-ting were at the center of a gender controversy over the summer when they won Olympic gold as women after being accused of being biologically male. This week, the issue over Khelif’s gender is being thrust back into the spotlight following a leaked medical report in the German tabloid, Bild, claiming she is a ‘biological male’ and has male characteristics.
The legitimacy of the report has yet to be determined. It was allegedly put together in 2023 via collaboration between French and Algerian expert endocrinologists working at the Kremlin-Bicetre hospital in Paris and the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine hospital in Algiers.
Following the Olympics, Khelif filed a cyberbullying complaint in France that reportedly named critics like JK Rowling and Elon Musk, among others – a legal action that Navratilova poked fun at on X.
A new, unverified report has surfaced in Germany claiming that Khelif was born male
Martina Navratilova has seized upon an unverified report about Imane Khelif’s gender
Navratilova focused in on Khelif’s lawsuit against JK Rowling and Elon Musk in her post
‘[Is] Imane still suing JK Rowling?’ Navratilova asked. ‘Good luck with that lawsuit.’
Navratilova wasn’t the only celebrity gloating about the report in a German tabloid.
Upon hearing the news, Piers Morgan took to X where he slammed the IOC’s decision to let Khelif compete at the Paris Games and demanded she be stripped of her gold medal.
‘Confirmation of what some of us said at the time: Khelif is a biological man,’ he wrote. ‘The gold medal should now be stripped and awarded to the best actual woman.’
Khelif comfortably won her first two fights in Paris, but the ending of her Olympic debut ignited controversy when opponent Angela Carini of Italy tearfully quit after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif’s punches.
Previously, Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were disqualified by the Russian-linked International Boxing Association in the middle of last year’s world championships over what it claimed were failed eligibility tests for the women’s competition.
The IBA’S ruling on Khelif came three days after she beat undefeated Russian prospect Azalia Amineva, thereby restoring Amineva’s perfect record.
Imane Khelif of Algeria sits on the ropes after winning her fight against Anna Luca Hamori
As reported by The Washington Post, it remains unclear which standards the IBA used to determine that Khelif has XY chromosomes.
The IBA, which was banished from the Olympics before the Tokyo Games in 2021, has not revealed any testing methodology.
Khelif ultimately beat Chinese boxer Yang Liu by unanimous decision to win gold at the Paris Olympics.
She previously insisted she is a biological female and fumed at reporters after gold medal victory at the Paris Olympics, stating: ‘As for whether I qualify or not, whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media.
‘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 as a woman, I competed as a woman, there’s no doubt about that.
‘[The critics] are enemies of success, that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.’
