The Olympic Games in Paris continue, but not without its share of controversy. From an opening ceremony that caused a stir to alleged poo in the River Seine, these Games are seemingly generating a scandal every other day. But none has been as loud and persistent as that of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. She won her semifinal match in the 66kg category yesterday and will box for gold against China’s Yang Liu on Friday. 

Controversy has surrounded Khelif since her round-of-16 match against Italy’s Angela Carini, which ended after just 46 seconds. The Algerian is renowned for her powerful jabs, and it took less than a minute for the Italian to decide she’d had enough. Cue an explosion of bigoted comments online, led by the usual pack of right-wing figures that stir up transphobia, including Elon Musk and children’s book author J.K. Rowling. She was accused of cheating by boxing in the wrong gender category online and in the papers across the world. The noise got to her, too, because after she won her quarterfinal match against Hungary’s Anna Hamori on Sunday night, she was led away weeping by the Algerian boxing coaches. 

Here’s the deal: Khelif is a woman—she’s always been. She has participated in numerous international bouts, including the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2019 and 2018 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, all without controversy. That might be because it is only in recent years that she has started to collect medals. These Games are, of course, the biggest stage for sports, and millions of eyes are on her. 

The problems began for her when, in 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA), which she competed under, announced that she had failed an unspecified eligibility test. The IBA president, Umar Kremlev, then claimed that a DNA test had “proved” she has XY chromosomes, which are associated with being male. Later, he said she had elevated levels of testosterone. Khelif disputed these findings in court but dropped the case due to a lack of funding. She later organised her private tests to dispute the results. 

The reason why she’s boxing in the Olympics is that the Russian-led IBA is so notoriously corrupt that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in June last year to revoke its Olympic status and to revoke the banning of Khelif and other boxers who had also suffered a similar fate. The IOC’s Paris Boxing Unit organised the boxing matches at the Games. About the controversial tests by the IBA, the IOC released a statement saying that it had tried to receive those test results so that it could make its assessment but found that “from the conception of the test, to how the test was shared with us, to how the tests have become public, is so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it”. The IOC stated that she met the eligibility criteria for the Olympics and “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport”.

Unfortunately, this did not stop Khelif’s online bullying at these Games, though she has also received strong support, especially from back home in Algeria. The irony of it all is that she is from a poor, rural background and had to fight against a sexist culture that viewed boxing as unsuitable for a woman. In previous interviews, she said she was boxing to inspire little girls who face similar obstacles in pursuing the sports she loves.

This controversy has once again raised the spectre of how women who don’t precisely fit social norms of femininity and masculinity are treated. The World Athletics body prevented South Africa’s champion, Caster Semenya, from participating in the 2020 Olympic Games for failing to pass the eligibility tests. She refused to take testosterone blockers to qualify and is challenging that rule as a violation of her human rights. Other athletes, including Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi of Namibia, were blocked from Tokyo. What is eyebrow-raising is that these testosterone rules have tended to be used on African athletes, raising the accusation that they are, in effect, limiting acceptable womanhood to white, Eurocentric standards. 

While Khelif’s Olympics journey continues, where she is now guaranteed at least a silver medal, it is painfully apparent that the controversy over gender in sport does not include protecting these athletes, who are subjected to horrific bullying, often by some of the most influential people on earth. Figures like Rowling throwing petrol onto the fire through their ignorance must stop. If the goal is protecting women’s sports and athletes, the bullying has to leave the conversation.