Imane Khelif’s mother sends clear message to controversial boxer’s critics

Imane Khelif’s mother sends clear message to controversial boxer’s critics

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was the subject of unsubstantiated speculation over her gender during her run to gold at the Olympic Games in Paris, and her mother has responded

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was the subject of unsubstantiated speculation over her gender during her run to gold at the Olympic Games in Paris, and her mother has responded

Imane Khelif during her victory ceremony in Paris

Imane Khelif’s mother has made clear the Algerian boxer is female, following a summer of controversy around the 25-year-old.

Khelif, who reached the quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympic Games before winning gold in Paris, was at the centre of a storm in relation to an alleged failure of gender tests at an International Boxing Association-run event. The IBA administered previous Olympic boxing tournaments, but had been stripped of that honour in 2019 amid “issues in the areas of finance, governance, ethics and refereeing and judging”.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting – also alleged to have failed an IBA test – were eligible to compete in Paris. Lin won gold in the 57kg weight class, with Khelif victorious at 66kg.

Khelif has begun legal action over ‘cyber harrassment’ in relation to social media comments during her Olympic run, saying she was “hurt” by the treatment she received. Now, her mother Nasria has spoken out.

Nasria is quoted by the Mail as saying she will give her “beloved daughter” her “unwavering love and support as I have always done since she was born”. Khelif’s father Amar has also weighed in on the matter, saying: “My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. Imane is a girl who has loved sport since she was six years old”.

In early August, during Khelif’s run in Paris, Amar told Reuters: “Having such a daughter is an honour because she is a champion”. He also shared a document with the publication, showing his daughter’s date of birth. “This is our family official document, May 2, 1999, Imane Khelif, female. It is written here you can read it, this document doesn’t lie,” he said.

The family’s comments come after a joint statement from the IOC and the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, published in early August. It made reference to “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” in relation to the 2023 tests and said: “Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process”.

Imane Khelif posing with her Olympic gold medal in her hometown (

IOC spokesman Mark Adams earlier slammed the process behind the IBA’s actions regarding Khelif and Lin. “I need hardly say if we start acting on suspicions against every athlete of whatever, then we go down a very bad route,” he said, adding that he considereed the IBA tests “not legitimate”.

”I’m not going to discuss the individual intimate details of athletes, in public, which I think is pretty disgraceful for those who have leaked that material,” he added. “Frankly, to be put in that position must be awful. On top of all of the social media harassment that these these athletes have had.”

IOC president Thomas Bach also spoke publicly on the matter. “We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women,” he said. “Some want to own a definition of who is a woman.”