The online reaction was swift, relentless and ill-informed.
Within hours of her victory on Thursday over Italy’s Angela Carini, unfounded claims that Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif is actually a man or “biological male” swirled online — amplified by the likes of Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling, Logan Paul and Caitlyn Jenner.
It all started when the fight stopped — after just 46 seconds with a punch to Carini’s nose.
The extremely brief bout, plus Carini’s refusal to shake hands with her fellow welterweight afterward, fuelled speculation they had not been fairly matched.
I don’t think this man gets to decide what is morally right or wrong <a href=”https://t.co/23oZ28Qz7b”>pic.twitter.com/23oZ28Qz7b</a>
—@Eddache_
Rowling called Khelif a “male” who was “enjoying the distress of a woman he just punched in the head.”
Carini later apologized for snubbing Khelif, saying she was angry because her “Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
She said the resulting controversy has made her sad.
“I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again I would embrace her,” she said.
Similar allegations have been levelled at another boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting.
The IOC is defending two female boxers at the heart of an ongoing gender controversy. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif were previously disqualified from a tournament after reportedly failing a gender eligibility test, but the IOC says both meet Olympic criteria to compete in Paris.
Neither Khelif nor Lin identify as transgender or as having been born with a male body. According to a fact check from GLAAD, there is no indication Khelif has ever identified as transgender or as intersex.
Nor is there any evidence to support the online speculation that Khelif has experienced differences in sex development (DSD), a group of rare conditions that can cause women to have XY chromosomes and blood testosterone levels in the male range.
The allegations against Khelif — as is often the case when transgenderism and sport are discussed — were frequently framed as a call to protect the integrity of women’s sports and, by extension, the women themselves.
But that’s an inauthentic argument according to Michele Donnelly, an associate professor of sport management and a gender issues researcher at Brock University. She sees it as an excuse to push a transphobic agenda.
“It’s so obviously not about women’s sport at all. It’s about really forwarding a trans-exclusionary, transphobic agenda,” she said.
“If people were truly interested in fairness and women’s sport, they would be advocating for more media coverage, for more resources invested in women’s sport, more opportunities.”
‘Echo chamber’
Despite their lack of evidence — and yes, we’re getting to the part about the boxing association — Khelif’s critics are still talking about this and are likely to continue says Timothy Caulfied, a law professor at the University of Alberta who studies misinformation.
“It has taken root within an echo chamber that feels very strongly about this. And it’s going to become one of those situations where facts don’t matter anymore,” he said.
“I have never been hit so hard in my life. It’s up to the IOC to judge.”<br><br>Italy’s Angela Carini after lasting just 46 seconds against Algeria’s intersex athlete Imane Khelif.<br><br>Biological firestorm at Paris Olympics. <a href=”https://t.co/BQRTF9Dc3m”>pic.twitter.com/BQRTF9Dc3m</a>
—@badel_cmail
That appears to be true of Rowling, for example, who doubled-down on her earlier remarks on Friday, posting on X: “We saw a male punching a female.”
Caufield says people like Rowling can spread misinformation easily because of their large audience.
“These are individuals with big audiences and very particular audiences,” he said.
“They want to hear opinions they want to hear. And we know when that happens, and research tells us this, misinformation is more likely to not only be believed, but to take off.”
Testosterone levels
Some of the supposed evidence against Khelif lacks context or nuance.
Both she and Lin failed gender eligibility testing under the International Boxing Association (IBA) in March 2023. Many have speculated this was due to high testosterone levels, even though the testing did not include testosterone.
(The IBA said Khelif was “proven” to have XY chromosomes, which typically indicates an individual is male. However, certain conditions can allow a woman to present XY chromosomes.)
Some sports organizations limit the levels of testosterone allowed in athletes competing in women’s categories, while others ban anyone who was assigned male sex at birth and is past puberty.
At a news conference Friday, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams called the debate over testosterone levels in women’s sports a “minefield.”
“As with all minefields, we want a simple explanation,” he said. “Everyone wants a black and white explanation of how we can determine this. That explanation does not exist, neither in the scientific community nor anywhere else.”
The IOC has its own rules, which cleared both Khelif and Lin to compete. It released a framework nearly three years ago to ensure that athletes are not excluded “solely on the basis” of transgender identity or (DSD).
For Donnelly, the simple fact that women have to undergo this kind of testing at all is “paternalistic” and “condescending.”
She says that despite the IOC’s attempt at an inclusive framework, “international sport federations, pretty consistently, institute very exclusionary, very restrictive eligibility requirements.”
“We celebrate the exceptionality in men’s bodies … and on the women’s side, the norm has been to look for ways to manage that right, to limit those exceptionalities.
“The sense that the women’s category needs to be protected, and women athletes themselves need to be protected … isn’t based on any kind of evidence,” she said.
“The best women athletes in the world are exceptionally much better than your average man raised.”