The story of Imane Khelif, the Algerian athlete who won gold in the women’s boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is filled with layers of complication.
The question confronting all of us now, with the story in the spotlight again Monday, is not just whether the Imane Khelif matter will ultimately prove a decisive turn in the history of female sport but, too, whether it can serve as a poignant reminder of what we all can desperately need, all the more so in our fragile and beleaguered world, to be reminded of:
Our common humanity.
Celebrating humanity is the core value of the Olympics.
Treating each other with respect, tolerance and decency — this can, perhaps, be the life lesson Imane Khelif teaches us.
All of us.
Imane Khelif after the quarterfinals in Paris // Getty Images
None of what is happening needed to happen.
But now that it’s out in the open — this exploration of Imane Khelif’s life, brought on by policy decisions that deserve to be questioned, and hard, by officials at the International Olympic Committee and in Algeria — the way forward is best marked with as much grace toward Khelif as facts will allow.
The Imane Khelif story resurfaced Monday, once again, as American outlets picked up a report first published Oct. 25 in what had perhaps heretofore been a little-known French publication, Le Correspondant.
A June 2023 medical report found Khelif has a difference in sexual development — it’s formally called ‘alpha-5 reductase type-2 deficiency’ — with XY chromosomes, internal testes and a “micropenis.”
A hormone test showed a “male-type testosterone level of 14.7,” the French story says, “while the female gender does not exceed the maximum level of 3.”
What is alpha-5 reductase deficiency?
As the National Library of Medicine — an official U.S. government website — explains, people with 5-alpha reductase are “genetically male,” with one X and one Y chromosome. They have testicles. They do not, however, produce enough of a hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.
To continue — DHT plays a key role in male sexual development. A shortage disrupts the formation of the external sex organs before birth.
More — many people with 5-alpha reductase deficiency are “assigned female at birth.” During puberty, an increase in the level of male sex hormones “leads to the development of some secondary sex characteristics, such as increased muscle mass” and more.
The French story offers screenshots from what it says is the medical report.
The Le Correspondant story goes on to refer to Mustapha Berraf, an IOC member and since 2018 head of the African confederation of nations called ANOCA. Citing a document to “which Le Correspondant had access,” it says Berraf “used his connections and ‘pushed the file,’” signing the Khelif letter of admission to the Paris Games.
“Contacted, Berraf defends himself against any unilateral decision, which would not have obtained the agreement of the IOC presidency, but acknowledges having ‘supported the candidacy of his fellow citizen … out of patriotism.’ While forgetting to specify that he was very aware of [Khelif’s] sexual anomaly …”
Certain U.S. outlets, in their reporting Monday, gave credit to my journalism from the Paris Games. I reported then that tests conducted in 2022 and 2023 at International Boxing Association world championships found the boxer’s DNA showed XY markers with ‘male’ karyotype, and the IOC, informed by the IBA, knew this by June 2023 — more than a year before the Games. 3 Wire Sports remains the only journalistic outlet to have seen these tests.
The IOC banished the IBA that same month from the Olympic system. IBA president Umar Kremlev is Russian.
In the matter of Imane Khelif — and, too, Yu Ting Lin of Chinese Taipei, who also won gold in Paris, and at IBA championships in 2022 and 2023 turned up XY markers — emotions have run high.
The red herring in the Khelif matter is Russia.
Indeed, the IOC has sought to focus journalistic attention on the IBA and, by extension, on Russia.
The focus should be — as the Oct. 25 Le Correspondant story, affirming and to its credit offering more detail to my reporting from the Games — on the IOC.
Khelif carried out after winning gold, with Algerian coaches Mohamed Chaoua and Mohamed al-Shawa // Getty Images
The obvious tension in the Imane Khelif matter is that Khelif was raised female and lives, as the medical file referred to by Le Correspondant notes, as a female.
Imane Khelilf’s passport — the basis by which the IOC, which ran the Paris boxing competition — calls Khelif female.
These are matters of identity.
Imane Khelif has every right to identify any way Imane Khelif wishes.
What gets in the way of civil discourse is when, as the U.S. outlet Reduxx did Monday, it refers to Khelif with “him,” “his” and “he.”
This is neither necessary nor helpful.
Nobody is suggesting the South African track standout Caster Semenya —the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport has said Semenya has 5-alpha reductase deficiency — should be referred to as “he.”
Again, Khelif, like Semenya, identifies as female.
At any rate, for sports purposes, the question is not, who calls one’s self a woman?
Instead, the issue — to reiterate what this space noted during the Olympics — is what rules does a sport seek to apply in deciding who gets to compete in the female category?
One more time: those are two different things.
Swimming, for instance, requires a chromosome test.
The issue is all the more fraught in combat sports, boxing and others. It’s simple common sense to see the risk: allowing someone with male attributes to compete in a female division could be dangerous.
Further, the technology exists to make the application of the rules simple. And, once more, rooted in our essential humanity.
As a United Nations special rapporteur said in a report presented in New York in early October:
“There are circumstances in which sex screenings are, however, legitimate and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports.
“For instance, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, female boxers had to compete against two boxers whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening.
“Current technology enables a reliable sex screening procedure through a simple cheek swab that ensures non-invasiveness, confidentiality and dignity.”