Imane Khelif, an Olympic boxer from Algeria who won a gold medal in the women’s division at the 2024 Summer Olympics, is confirmed to be a biological male with a sex development condition, according to a French journalist who obtained a medical report, Reduxx reported Monday.
Over the summer, Khelif dominated the Paris Olympics, winning every single round and every single judge’s card in the welterweight women’s division, despite failing gender tests in 2019 and 2023.
A copy of the alleged medical report says an MRI determined, “Khelif had no uterus, but instead had internal testicles and a ‘micropenis’ resembling an enlarged clitoris,” Reduxx reported. The fighter also has XY chromosomes and testosterone levels typical of males.
The French journalist, Djaffar Air Aoudia, also said the test suggests Khelif’s parents are possibly blood relatives.
Khelif is reportedly impacted by a condition called 5-alpha reductase deficiency, which can only occur in biological males, per MedlinePlus.gov:
5-alpha reductase deficiency is a condition that affects sexual development before birth and during puberty. People with this condition are genetically male, with one X and one Y chromosome in each cell, and they have male gonads (testes). Their bodies, however, do not produce enough of a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT has a critical role in male sexual development, and a shortage of this hormone disrupts the formation of the external sex organs before birth.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) permitted Khelif to compete in the women’s division, since the Olympics’ gender eligibility standard for boxing is based merely on a fighter’s passport.
“As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams stated at a press conference.
Opponents of Khelif and advocates for girls and women’s spaces in sports spoke out about the gender controversy, but the legacy news media maintained that Khelif was female and categorized any dissent as “false gender claims.”
ESPN, for example, ran with the headline, “Imane Khelif wins Olympic boxing gold amid false gender claims.” The Associated Press, too, said critics have “falsely claimed she (Khelif) was a man,” and championed the boxer for being an inspiration to girls.
