Boxer Imane Khelif breaks silence over IOC’s new rules to protect women

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Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif spoke out after the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry announced policies to “protect the female category” at future games.

Khelif, 26, won the gold medal in the women’s 66 kg division at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the Algerian’s victory was marred by controversy over reports that she allegedly failed gender eligibility tests, resulting in the athlete being one of two competitors — the other, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting — barred from the 2023 World Championships.

Khelif has maintained that she is female, and not transgender, but a recently leaked medical report summarized the findings on the boxer as “abnormal,” stating: “Chromosome analysis reveals male karyotype.”

While there have been calls for Khelif to return the gold medal, Coventry said in her announcement last month that despite the rules change, the boxer would be allowed to keep her Olympic title.

However, the boxer took to Instagram to share a selfie and defiant message: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

The Olympian also included lyrics from Sia’s song “I’m Still Here,” which speaks of perseverance and survival, in the post that has since been deleted.

“It was fully agreed that as members that, as the IOC, we should make the effort to place emphasis on protection of the female category,” Coventry said in the livestreamed meeting, according to Fox News.

“But it was fully agreed that as members that, as the IOC, we should make the effort to place emphasis on the protection of the female category,” Coventry continued.

“It was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost,” she noted.

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“We have to do that to ensure fairness. And we have to do it with a scientific approach. And with the inclusion of the international federations who have done a lot of work in that area.”

Khelif’s boxing future remains uncertain.

World Boxing, which has since been recognized by the IOC as the sport’s international federation, has introduced mandatory sex testing and said Khelif would not be able to compete in the female category and defend her Olympic title until she undergoes the test.

Khelif skipped the Eindhoven Box Cup in the Netherlands less than a week after the mandatory sex testing was announced.

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