Imane Khelif

Imane Khelif is an Algerian professional boxer. Khelif has won the women’s welterweight medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Following wins at a series of regional victories, Khelif secured a silver medal at the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships and gold at the 2024 Olympics. Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships after allegedly failing unspecified sex verification tests, a decision that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsequently criticised as "sudden and arbitrary". In 2023, Umar Kremlev, president of the IBA, claimed that the disqualifications were because DNA tests "proved they had XY chromosomes". No public medical evidence exists that Khelif is transgender. Imane Khelif’s trainer has said that Khelif is deemed too dangerous to practice with women and was injuring many women. An endocrinologist supported "that Imane is indeed a woman, despite her karyotype and her testosterone level." The IBA was stripped from the Olympics and boxers only had to show their passport to compete. Since the introduction of mandatory sex verification testing for women by World Boxing in May 2025, Khelif has not taken part in events run by the organisation. In a February 2026 interview with CNN, Khelif revealed having high levels of testosterone.  Khelif also revealed having had 'hormone treatments' for XY chromosomes before Paris Olympics, but denies being transgender. Khelif said in the interview, "I lowered my testosterone level to zero". The Algerian also has the SRY gene, often found in the Y chromosome and correlated with males.
Khelif reinstated being a biological woman.

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