Imane Khelif endured relentless accusations that she was a man wrongfully competing in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics, where she knocked out Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds during their opening fight.
The criticism and false claims about the Algerian Olympian’s sex during the Summer Games quickly spread online, with prominent celebrities like J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk, and even Donald Trump fervently chastising the 25-year-old. They reiterated to their combined 298 million followers on X that “men don’t belong in women’s sports.”
To her 14.2 million followers, the 59-year-old Harry Potter author posted a picture from Khelif’s fight with Carini, writing, “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, who owns X, shared a post from U.S. swimmer Riley Gaines stating, “men don’t belong in women’s sports.” The 53-year-old co-signed the message by writing, “Absolutely.”
Former President Donald Trump, 78, on his social platform Truth Social, posted a photo from Khelif’s fight against Carini, accompanied by the message: “I will keep men out of women’s sports!”
The lawsuit was filed against X, which under French law means it was filed against unknown persons. This “ensures that the prosecution has all the latitude to investigate against all people,” explained Nabil Boudi, Khelif’s Paris-based attorney. He added that Rowling and Musk are named in the lawsuit and that Trump would inevitably be part of the investigation. “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended Khelif and denounced those spreading misinformation. Khelif herself stated that the spread of misconceptions about her “harms human dignity.”
Khelif’s coach, Pedro Diaz, said the bullying the boxer endured during the Olympics “incredibly affected her” and “everyone around her.”
“The first time she fought in the Olympics, there was this crazy storm outside of the ring,” said Diaz, who had trained 21 Olympic champions before Khelif. “I had never seen anything so disgusting in my life.”
Khelif asserted, “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I have lived as a woman, I compete as a woman—there’s no doubt about that. [The detractors] are enemies of success—that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
The issue received widespread attention after Carini abandoned her match against Khelif in the 66kg boxing competition, claiming, “I have never felt a punch like this,” after refusing to shake Khelif’s hand post-match.
Later, Carini expressed regret for her behavior in the aftermath of the fight and said she would like to apologize to Khelif. “All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini told the Italian outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport, according to the BBC and the Associated Press. “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
Regarding not shaking Khelif’s hand, the Italian boxer added, “It wasn’t something I intended to do. Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. If I were to meet her again, I would embrace her.”