Olympic gold medal boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting faced accusations from far-right politicians and anti-trans activists such as Donald Trump, Marine Le-Pen, JK Rowling and Elon Musk of being biologically “male”, while competing in the Olympic Games in Paris.
Algeria’s Khelif (47 wins and 9 losses) and Taiwan’s Yu-Ting (46 wins and 14 losses) dominated their respective Welterweight and Featherweight women’s divisions, winning every bout by a 5-0 decision. The only exception was Khelif’s first bout, where she scored a Technical Knockout after 46 seconds against Italy’s Angela Carini.
After her defeat, Carini complained that she hadn’t been hit so hard before and refused to shake hands with Khelif. She told the BBC: “It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life in that moment”. She later apologised to Khelif for her actions.
Rowling wrote on X after the bout: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better?” sharing a picture of Carini in tears and Khelif trying to comfort her. Rowling also posted: “the smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”
Musk shared a post from swimmer Riley Gaines that “Men don’t belong in woman’s sports” with the X owner supporting the message by writing “absolutely”.
Italy’s far-right president Giorgia Meloni posted a picture of herself consoling Carini on X following the bout and wrote: "I know that you won't give up Angela, and I know that one day you will get what you deserve through strength and sweat. In a competition that is finally equal."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stood by its decision to allow Khelif and Yu-Ting to compete stating that “Everyone competing in the Women’s category is complying with the competitions eligibility rules. They are women in their passports, and it is stated that this is the case, they are female.”
Furthermore, IOC president Thomas Bach said the “hate speech” directed at Khelif and Yu-Ting was “totally unacceptable”, adding: “We will not take part in a politically motivated … cultural war … Some want to own a definition of who is a wom[a]n.”
After the tournament, Khelif told Al Jazeera that winning was “the perfect response” to the “attacks” and “bullying” and declared “I am a woman like any other”. She filed a formal legal complaint against X on August 9, naming Musk and Rowling in the lawsuit for alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment”.
Khelif and Yu-Ting were disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s World Championship after they failed “to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition” and tests showed they had “competitive advantages over other female competitors”. The test details and results were never published, however. According to NBC New York, Khelif’s disqualification took place after she had defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament.
Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff commented on the Edge of Sports website that the attacks on the boxers reinforce the idea of a “tidy gender binary” that Khelif and Yu-Ting have supposedly violated.
Zirin and Boykoff also argue that the IBA is corrupt and that Kremlev has close ties to Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. According to Zirin and Boykoff, the IBA is also the only international sporting body affiliated to the IOC to have its recognition withdrawn from it, meaning that the IOC took on the administration of the 2024 Olympic boxing tournament.
While anti-trans advocates claim to care about protecting women’s sport they do not seem to care that claims Khelif is trans put her in danger, since it is illegal to be transgender in Algeria.
Many of the cisgendered athletes that have been subject to attack from anti-trans and other reactionary forces are woman of colour, such as Khelif, Yu-Ting, South African middle distance runner Caster Semenya and Kenyan Sprinter Maximillia Imali.
In an August 2 article on Reckon, Michelle Zenarosa documented 10 cases of attacks on female athletes where transphobia, racism and misogyny intersected. These included Semanya, Imali, Lia Thomas and CeCe Telfer.
Whether athletes such as Khelif and Yu-Ting are trans or cisgender we need to defend them from these reactionary attacks that not only undermine trans rights in sport but the rights of the trans community in all areas of public and social life.
Anti-trans activists will happily ally themselves with other reactionary forces to undermine women’s rights — in sport and elsewhere. For this reason, as Zirin and Boykoff point out, “the abuse right now is targeting both Khelif and the trans community. If we are not defending them both, then we are playing the right’s dangerous game”.