His speech was eagerly awaited. Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif, a recurring target of accusations about her gender, revealed that she had used hormonal treatment to lower her testosterone levels before the 2024 Paris Olympics, while reaffirming that she was not “a trans”, in an interview with L’Équipe published on Wednesday.
“I have female hormones. And people don’t know it, but I took hormonal treatments to lower my testosterone levels for competitions,” said the 26-year-old Algerian.
“Trump cannot bend the truth”
Confirming having the SRY gene, located on the Y chromosome, an indicator of masculinity – “Yes and it’s natural” -, Khelif explained “being surrounded by doctors, a teacher follows me (…) For the qualifying tournament for the Paris Games, which took place in Dakar, I lowered my testosterone level to zero”. “And I won the gold medal” in the -66 kg category, recalled the woman who then found herself at the heart of a huge global controversy. Indeed, the Algerian boxer was the target of attacks and a disinformation campaign, presenting her as a “man fighting women”.
Like the Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, also crowned in the -57 kg category at the Paris Games, Khelif had been accused of being a transgender athlete, by several personalities including Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the British novelist JK Rowling.
“I respect everyone, and I respect Trump. Because he is the president of the United States. But he can’t bend the truth. I’m not a trans, I’m a girl. I was raised as a girl, I grew up as a girl, the people of my village always knew me as a girl,” insisted Imane Khelif.
Khelif has not given up on the Los Angeles Olympics
The boxer, who aspires to participate in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028, knows that to do so she will have to consent to a genetic test imposed by World Boxing, a body recognized by the IOC, and said she is ready.
“For the next Games, if I have to take a test, I will submit to it. I have no problem with that. I have already done this test. I contacted World Boxing, sent them my medical records, my hormone tests, everything. But I got no response. I am not hiding, I am not refusing tests,” she assured.
And continued: “It’s up to doctors and teachers to decide. We all have different genetics, all different hormone levels. I am not a transsexual. My difference is natural. I am like that. I have done nothing to change the way nature made me. That’s why I’m not afraid.”
Khelif, who has not fought since the Paris Games, World Boxing having prevented her from participating last year in the Eindhoven tournament due to not having undergone the chromosomal test which had just been put in place, is awaiting a French professional boxing license.
“It’s the logical next step,” she said, but “it’s not because I fight professionally that I’m giving up on the 2028 Games. Not at all. I want (…) to become the one who, for the first time in Algerian sport, will manage to retain her Olympic title.”
