JK Rowling's imaginary trans Olympian
Despite being born a woman, Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has become the target of transphobes like JK Rowling, who call her a "biological man."
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On Thursday, Italian boxer Angela Carini collapsed onto the canvas and broke down in tears after abandoning her preliminary boxing match against Algeria’s Imane Khelif after just 45 seconds—a fight that has since ignited one of the biggest scandals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khelif, 25, was one of two boxers allowed to compete at the Olympic Games despite being disqualified from the world championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests.
The International Boxing Association (IBA), the organizer of the World Championships, claimed at the time that athletes who “pretended to be women” were excluded based on tests that showed “they have XY chromosomes.” (Women typically have XX chromosome pairs, and men typically have XY pairs.) Some genetic conditions, such as Swyer Syndrome, can cause a woman to be born with XY chromosomes.
Khelif has never identified as a man, as transgender, or as intersex—which refers to people with both male and female sex characteristics.) She is also from Algeria, where it is illegal to transition.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has repeatedly stated that Khelif meets the eligibility and medical criteria to compete in Paris. Notably, she previously competed at the Tokyo Olympics, where she was eliminated in the quarter-final stage.
“These athletes have competed many times before for many years—they haven’t just suddenly arrived,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said during a press conference on Tuesday.
It is also worth noting that the IBA has been banned from regulating Olympic boxing because of years of governance problems, a lack of financial transparency and many perceived instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.
Nevertheless, none of the aforementioned facts stopped high-profile names like author J.K. Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk from spreading dangerous misinformation about Khelif’s gender.
“Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better?” Rowling wrote on X while sharing a picture of Carini and Khelif following their bout. “The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”
Musk shared a post from swimmer Riley Gaines that claimed “men don’t belong in women’s sports.” He responded to the message by writing: “Absolutely.”
Athletes and politicians also piled Khelif, including US Sen. Marco Rubio and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the latter of whom questioned the IOC’s decision to allow the Algerian athlete to compete among women.
“From my point of view, this was not an equal competition,” Meloni told reporters Thursday. “I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not participate in women’s competitions. Not because we want to discriminate against anyone, but to protect the rights of female athletes to compete on equal terms.”
It should come as no surprise to Sports Politika readers that the vast majority of Khelif’s critics are vocal transphobes and are deeply ingrained in the ongoing gender culture war that is dominating online spaces. Rowling has long been criticized for views on gender identity and for saying trans women shouldn't be allowed into female-only spaces. At one point, she even dared police in Scotland—where she resides—to arrest her under a new hate crime law after she described several trans women as men. The author has faced criticism from Harry Potter stars like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who attempted to distance the beloved wizarding world from its creator.
Musk has also been known to spread transphobic hate on Twitter, the social media platform that he owns. Last month, Musk stated that his trans daughter Jenna Wilson was “not a girl” and was “tricked” into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16. Wilson later took part in an interview with NBC, where she called referred to Musk as an absent father who was “cold,” “cruel” and “narcissistic.”
Meanwhile, prime minister Meloni has spent her term in office chipping away at LGBTQ+ rights in Italy. Her government closed a legal loophole in January that allowed mayors and municipal officials the power to grant legal guardianship for same-sex parents and refused to sign an EU declaration on LGBTQ+ community rights on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Her personal brand can be summed up in her infamous (and now viral) tirade during a 2019 rally, where she stated “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian.”
These commentators and influencers are fixated on trans women to the point where they've had to invent a trans Olympian and fabricate a controversy to sustain their outrage. They claim their anger is about “biological men” infiltrating women’s sports, but the reality is they don't actually care about the sports themselves. If they did, they would know that Khelif had already competed in the Tokyo Games, where she lost to Irish champion Kellie Harrington.
The truth is that there is no indication that Khelif did anything wrong. She has not been accused of doping to boost testosterone levels, nor is she transgender. She was born female, as was confirmed by the IOC. The real scandal isn’t Khelif’s presence at the Olympic Games but the hatemongering from Musk and Rowling that could cost the Algerian athlete her life.
So much for protecting women.
Update: Italian boxer Carini has apologized to Khelif for how she handled the moments after the fight on Thursday.
"All this controversy makes me sad," Carini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision."
Meanwhile, Khelif’s upcoming opponent, Hungarian boxer Luca Hamori, has been spreading hateful messages about the Algerian on social media, including posts labeling her as a “man.” Another post shared on Hamori’s Instagram stories depicted her as a woman fighting against a beast, referring to Khelif.
Hamori’s posts are contrary to the Athletes’ Declaration of rights and responsibilities for athletes within the Olympic Movement, which states that “athletes must respect the rights and well-being of, and not discriminate against, other athletes, their entourage, volunteers, and all others within the sporting environment.”
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