‘Scared’: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif opens up about online abuse over Olympic gender storm

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has opened up about the toll of online abuse she received amid the Olympics gender storm in a new interview.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has described the fear she felt after being targeted by a wave of online abuse from all over the world, driven by the likes of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, amid the Olympics gender storm.

Speaking to local news channel El Birad after returning from Paris, the gold medal winning boxer said the vitriolic online commentary “hurt me a lot”.

“Immediately after there was a lot of noise from politicians, athletes, stars, artists — Elon Musk and Donald Trump — and that hurt me a lot, I cannot describe how scared I was,” she said.

“I was afraid that I would say, ‘Why did Imane Khelif insist on this? Why was there an uproar from big politicians around the world.’ I was afraid, but thank God, I was able to overcome this situation thanks to the therapists who were helping me.”

She added that it was a “very difficult stage that I did not expect”.

“And thank God the whole world knows Imane Khelif with her femininity, her courage and her will,” she said.

Imane Khelif speaking to Algerian TV. Picture: X

‘Disgrace to my honour’

The interviewer then asked Khelif how she felt about Mr Trump “exploiting” her case in his election campaign.

“I do not like to bring politics into sports,” she said.

“Politics and sports are two different things. These politicians wronged me. They have no right to call me a transgender. This is a disgrace to my honour and the honour of my family and to Algeria, and to the entire Arab world. The whole world knows that I am a Muslim woman. To everyone who would like to apologise, I will accept if they apologise. I am sending my message that I am a female and I will remain a female.”

It came as France launched a cyber-bullying probe following a complaint by Khelif, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The investigation was opened Tuesday into “cyberharassment” following the high-profile gender row at the Games, the Paris public prosecutor’s office told AFP.

The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said last week that the 25-year-old had filed a complaint for online harassment, calling it a “fight for justice”.

“The investigation will determine who was behind this misogynist, racist and sexist campaign, but will also have to concern itself with those who fed the online lynching,” he said at the time.

The Central Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes has been tasked with the investigation.

The 25-year-old was at the centre of a high-profile gender row. Picture: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

Trump, Musk, Rowling named

According to US magazine Variety, billionaire entrepreneur Musk and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been named in the complaint.

Former US President Trump, who is the Republican Party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential race, would also be part of the investigation, Variety said, citing the lawyer.

Khelif won the women’s 66kg final against China’s Yang Liu in a unanimous points decision, having been the focus of intense scrutiny in the French capital during the Olympics.

Together with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won the 57kg women’s final, Khelif was disqualified from last year’s world championships after they failed gender eligibility testing.

However they were cleared to compete in Paris, setting the stage for one of the biggest controversies of the Games.

The row in Paris erupted after Khelif won her bout against Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds with two strong punches to the Italian’s nose.

The International Boxing Association’s Russian president and Kremlin-linked oligarch, Umar Kremlev, has targeted both athletes, claiming that Khelif and Lin had undergone “genetic testing that shows that these are men”.

The IBA was responsible for the world championships in 2023 that Lin and Khelif were thrown out of, but the IOC cleared them to box in Paris.

Khelif said she is “a woman like any other”.

“I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman,” she told reporters about her eligibility.

Imane Khelif punches Italy’s Angela Carini. Picture: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

‘They hate me’

Speaking of the IBA, Khelif added, “They hate me and I don’t know why.”

Russia’s team has been banned from the Paris Olympics over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, Khelif received a hero’s welcome at Algiers airport, with crowds cheering the boxer with chants of “Tahia Imane” (Long live Imane).

An editorial in government daily El Moudjahid praised Khelif.

“Imane’s victory is also a victory for the oppressed and the excluded, but above all it is a victory for the law, which for too long has been trampled by the logic of the powerful, who are greedy for domination and adept at double-standard policies,” it said.

Asked if the International Olympic Committee was prepared to consider reviewing the gender issue, its president Thomas Bach has said that “if someone is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it”.

“But what is not possible that someone is saying this is not a woman just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organisation with highly political interest,” he said.

— with AFP

Originally published as ‘Scared’: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif opens up about online abuse over Olympic gender storm