Imane Khelif has admitted for the first time that she has male sex chromosomes after her Olympic gold medal caused worldwide controversy.
Imane Khelif has admitted to having male chromosomes for the first time.
Khelif won a gold medal in women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics under heavy scrutiny from the International Boxing Association (IBA), which was derecognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2023 amid concerns about the organization’s governance, financial reliance on Russian state energy firm Gazprom and the integrity of the bouts.
What should have been a defining sporting moment instead turned her into one of the most talked-about athletes of the Games for reasons unrelated to performance.
Khelif was previously disqualified from the IBA for failing a gender eligibility test. IBA President Umar Kremlev claimed at the time that unpublished DNA test results showed Khelif had XY chromosomes.
Khelif spoke to French media outlet L’Equipe.
Khelif stated “We all have different genetics, different hormone levels. I’m not transgender. My difference is natural. This is who I am. I haven’t done anything to change the way nature made me. That’s why I’m not afraid”.
“I have taken hormone treatments to lower my testosterone levels for competitions.”
“For the next Games, if I have to take a test, I will. I have no problem with that,” Khelif said.
The next Olympic games are set to be staged in Los Angeles, United States of America.
President Donald Trump has shared his thoughts on transgender athletes competing in the games.
Donald Trump last year referred to Khelif as a “male boxer” after he had signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
A new body, World Boxing, was granted provisional recognition as the sport’s international governing federation by the IOC in February 2025.
It has introduced mandatory genetic tests for athletes to “determine their sex at birth and their eligibility to compete”.
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