At the 2024 Paris Olympics, two boxers competing in the female division, Imane Khelif from Algeria and Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan, were suspected of being male. Imane Khelif, representing Algeria in the women’s welterweight (66kg) division at the 2024 Paris Olympics drew the most attention. Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew from her bout with Khelif just 46 seconds in saying she had “never been hit so hard.” In his quarterfinal match, he defeated Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori by unanimous decision, securing at least a bronze medal. In the semifinals, Khelif went on to face Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand and won by unanimous decision. Khelif defeated Yang Liu of China in the gold medal match, again by unanimous decision. Lin Yu-ting faired just as well in his matches, also winning the gold media in his division.
I wrote about this controversy extensively in August as the scene unfolded. My first essay concerned the Paris Games opening ceremony (Supper in the Spectacular Café). This was followed by the boxing scandal and the problem of men in women’s sports more generally: Misogyny Resurgent: Atavistic Expressions of a Neoreligion; The Ubiquity of Fallacious Reasoning on the Progressive Left; Sacrificing Equity Upon the Altar of Inclusivity; Dignity and Sex-Based Rights; The Project to Gaslight the Masses is Massive and Comprehensive; The IOC’s Portrayal Guidelines—a Real-World Instantiation of Newspeak; Khelif’s Trainer Told a French Magazine Khelif is Male; In His Terminal Liminality, an Algerian Boxer Becomes the Optimal Neoreligious Fetish.
Now we learn, thanks to a November 4 article, “Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif has XY Chromosomes and Testicles: French-Algerian Medical Report Admits,” by Anna Slats, writing for Reduxx, that Khelif is indeed a male. A French journalist accessed a medical report revealing that fact. In what follows, I summarize the report (adapted from the Reduxx piece) and provide commentary. Frankly, I am gloating because I called this in the moment, even getting the diagnosis correct. That’s how obvious it all is, thereby demonstrating the degree of rationalization required to justify allowing male athletes to compete against female athletes. (I urge readers to visit and subscribe to Reduxx if they haven’t already.)
The medical report, completed in June 2023, through a collaboration between Paris’ Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital and Algiers’ Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital, was drafted by endocrinologists Soumaya Fedala and Jacques Young. It details that Khelif has 5-alpha reductase deficiency, or 5-ARD, a rare condition that affects only males. This disorder impacts the typical development of male sexual organs, leading many affected individuals to be mistakenly assigned female at birth due to atypical genitalia.
Readers may recall that I identified this condition in Khelif back in August. On August 10 I wrote, “Standing 5’10”, Khelif is a male with an XY karyotype suffering DSD and likely a 5-ARD case (similar to South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya), meaning that there is endogenous testosterone production (internal testes).” On August 14, I wrote that “Khelif has gone through male puberty. This boxer is a XY (male) with a disorder of sexual development (SDS), i.e., dysfunction of the SRY gene; Khelif has abnormal testosterone levels for a woman, likely a condition known as 5-ARD.” All this has now been confirmed.
I had stopped writing about the matter by the end of August as the media stopped showing any interest in the study having created enough ambiguity as to lead many to assume Khelif’s were wrong. I moved on to other things, especially the 2024 Presidential Elections. In late October, French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia obtained a physical examination report on Khelif, which confirms his condition. According to Aoudia, the report indicates that an MRI revealed no uterus but rather internal testicles and an “enlarged clitoris,” i.e., a micropenis. Chromosomal testing confirmed an XY karyotype, while hormone tests showed testosterone levels typical of males. (The report also suggests that Khelif’s parents may be closely related, which is not uncommon in the Islamic world.)
The report recommends that Khelif undergo hormone therapy and surgical correction to better align with his self-identified gender, further noting that psychological support is essential, as the findings have reportedly caused significant neuropsychiatric distress. Those of us who reported on this matter back in August were scolded for supposing initially that Khelif was transgender rather than intersex, a criticism that tacitly admitted Khelif was male. However, if Khelif undergoes “gender affirming surgery,” then we will in indeed have a case of a transgender.
If you recall from my August essays, these revelations align with an earlier statement by Khelif’s coach, Georges Cazorla, who acknowledged that Khelif underwent chromosomal testing after her disqualification from women’s boxing by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in March 2023. Cazorla confirmed that endocrinologists identified a chromosomal issue but argued that Khelif should still be allowed to compete against women. Following this assessment, Khelif reportedly began testosterone-suppressant treatment. This would not impact his performance, so it seems this intervention was to evade testing had that been required.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not required chromosomal testing for athletes since 1999; in Paris, eligibility for women’s boxing only required a female gender marker on legal documents (in this case, a passport). However, Alan Abrahamson, an Olympic sports specialist at USC, corroborated Khelif’s XY karyotype in an August statement, having reviewed the IBA-ordered chromosomal tests from 2022 and 2023.
Again, I am indebted to Reduxx’s reporting on this and grateful for that magazine’s persistence in getting to the bottom of this story. In partnership with the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), Reduxx was the first to report on Khelif’s inclusion in the women’s 66kg boxing category in Paris, raising alarms over her previous IBA disqualification. ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith criticized the IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to compete, calling it an endorsement of “male violence against women” in the name of public entertainment. Smith urged the IOC to revoke Khelif’s gold medal and demanded accountability, emphasizing the need to protect women’s sports from similar incidents in the future. I concur.
freedom and reason 