Fact vs Fiction: Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif Is Male and Should Not Be Allowed To Fight Women

The Left’s assault on language surrounding sex and gender has led to widespread confusion about an Olympic boxer's sex.

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About the Author

Dr. Colin Wright is the Founding Editor of Reality’s Last Stand, an evolutionary biology PhD, Manhattan Institute Fellow, and a member of The Killarney Group, the world’s leading think-tank on sex and gender. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, City Journal, Quillette, Queer Majority, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals.

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Social media is currently ablaze with controversy over a women’s Olympic boxing match between Angela Carini of Italy and Imane Khelif of Algeria. Just 46 seconds into the fight, after receiving a barrage of powerful punches from Khelif, Carini threw the fight. The controversy isn’t about the brief duration of the fight or suspicions of a fighter doping with exogenous performance-enhancing drugs. Rather, the outcry centers on Imane Khelif, who is biologically male yet has been allowed to compete in the female category, raising serious concerns about fairness and safety.

While progressive activists generally support allowing males who identify as women to compete in women’s sports, the Left’s assault on language surrounding sex and gender has led to widespread confusion across the political spectrum. Misinformation has rapidly filled this vacuum of understanding. It appears that nobody is entirely sure what’s going on and, in the absence of clear facts, each side has opted to slide into the well-worn grooves of tribal political discourse they’re accustomed to.

The narratives from the political Right have been predictably volatile, referring to Khelif as a “man,” a “cheater,” and someone who perhaps enjoys harming and abusing women. Of course, this reaction is somewhat understandable given the rise of men being allowed to compete against women, with some, such as Fallon Fox, seeming to relish such abuse. After fracturing woman’s skull during a fight, Fox provocatively posted on social media: “And just so you know, I enjoyed it. See, I love smacking up TERFS in the cage who talk transphobic nonsense. It’s bliss! Don’t be mad.”

This heightened aversion to males participating in women’s sports has also resulted in some unfortunate collateral damage at the Paris Olympics. Ilona Maher, a U.S. rugby player, faced unwarranted criticism as some members of the public mistakenly confused Maher for a trans woman due to her large, muscular build and masculine facial features. Evidently, for many on the Right a figurative sniff test is taking precedence over a cheek swab when forming opinions about an athlete’s sex and their eligibility to compete in the female category.

The Left, however, has been quick to pounce given that the situation surrounding Khelif does not appear to involve transgender issues at all, but rather concerns differences of sexual development (DSD), which relates to athletes with mixed or ambiguous sex characteristics. However, while this is crucial information for understanding the details of the case, progressive fanatics for “inclusion” are using ideological language and the complexity of DSDs as an opportunity to stir up even more confusion.

The favored narrative is that Khelif is not a trans woman but a “cisgender” woman with a vagina who “naturally” produces high levels of testosterone. This argument echoes the defense used for South African runner and two-time Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya when questions about Semenya’s sex were raised. Indeed, progressive media outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, and countless others flooded the zone with so many articles parroting the “female with naturally high testosterone” angle that the truth became effectively buried. To this day, many (most?) on the Left still have no idea that the reason Semenya has “naturally high testosterone” is because Semenya is biologically male with two functioning testes and XY chromosomes.

Furthermore, the progressive Left’s use of ideological language seems engineered to avoid direct contact with reality. Many assert that since Khelif is not a “trans” woman, Khelif must be a “cis” woman, implying that Khelif is female. However, these terms are profoundly misleading.

For those not familiar with the lexicon of gender ideology, “trans” and “cis” are ideological terms that refer to whether a person’s so-called “gender identity” (a pseudoscientific term) aligns or does not align with their “sex assigned at birth.” However, “sex assigned at birth” is yet another ideological term that does not necessarily reflect a persons actual sex. This is because some people are born with DSDs that may cause a doctor to mistakenly “assign” a newborn the wrong sex. According to gender ideology, if these people grow up and “identify” as the sex that was incorrectly recorded on their birth certificates, they will be “cis.” Consequently, the term “cis woman” does not necessarily equate to “female.”

DSDs are already complex and confusing enough without the additional layer of radical ideological jargon designed to obscure the facts with a dense fog of confusion. So let me explain what we know—and don’t know—about Imane Khelif’s biology.

On March24, 2023, Imane Khelif (as well as boxer Lin Yu-ting) was disqualified from competing in the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi. The IBA released a statement on July 31 clarifying that the disqualification stemmed from two separate tests conducted in Istanbul in 2022 and New Delhi in 2023. It further stated that the “athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.” Importantly, Khelif initially sought to appeal the IBA’s decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but later withdrew it.

So if the lab tests leading to Khelif’s disqualification were not testosterone tests, what were they? Although the IBA has not explicitly stated the nature of the tests to protect Khelif’s medical privacy, we can use deductive reasoning to get an answer.

In 2023, prior to the Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi, India, IBA president Umar Kremlev announced that several boxers had been disqualified following “a series of DNA-tests” that “uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women.” He further revealed that the disqualified athletes “had XY chromosomes.” Additionally, the current IBA Technical & Competition Rules states: “‘Women/Female/Girl’ means an individual with chromosome XX. For this purpose, the Boxers can be submitted to a random and/or targeted gender test to confirm the above, which will serve for the gender eligibility criteria for the IBA Competitions.”

From this information, we can deduce that Khelif was disqualified from IBA competition for having XY chromosomes, which is associated with being biologically male.

Despite this, some progressive activists, unwilling to give up on their effort to paint opposition to Khelif’s participation in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics as bigoted, have embarked on a desperate hunt for potential DSDs that can result in a female with XY chromosomes.

The most common DSD I see being weaponized on social media is Swyer syndrome, also known as “XY gonadal dysgenesis.” This disorder occurs when the SRY gene on the Y chromosome, which directs male development, is either missing or inactive. Without this gene, the body cannot develop testes. However, instead of developing ovaries, the gonads remain undifferentiated. Crucially, the absence of testes means there is no testosterone production; thus, the fetus develops female internal (uterus and cervix) and external (vagina and vulva) anatomy. The lack of testosterone also prevents individuals with Swyer syndrome from undergoing male puberty, meaning they do not gain the physical advantages typical of male development, nor do they exhibit male-typical features. In other words, people with Swyer syndrome are not androgenized.

Given Khelif’s pronounced masculine facial features and significant upper-body muscle mass, it is almost certainly not the case that Khelif has Swyer syndrome. Had Khelif had this condition, they would likely have proceeded with the appeal process and stood a strong chance of winning.

Another DSD being bandied about is complete or partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS/PAIS). Individuals with with this condition posses XY chromosomes, develop normal testes, and produce male levels of testosterone. However, their cells contain defective androgen receptors (e.g., for testosterone), which do not respond to the testosterone produced by the testes. For people with complete androgen insensitivity, this results in a totally female external presentation, despite being biologically male due to the presence of internal testes. Importantly, these individuals show no signs of androgenization because their bodies are completely unresponsive to testosterone, which means they do not have a physical advantage in sports. Given Khelif’s androgenized appearance, complete androgen insensitivity syndrome can be effectively ruled out. If Khelif has CAIS, they would almost certainly win their appeal.

However, partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS) remains a possibility. Individuals with PAIS undergo a partial male puberty, which confers physical advantages in sports, justifying their exclusion from the female category. If Khelif has PAIS, they would almost certainly lose their appeal.

The final and most probable DSD for Khelif is 5-alpha reductase deficiency (5-ARD), which also prevented South African runner Caster Semenya from competing in the female category. People with 5-ARD have XY chromosomes and testes that produce testosterone. However, due to a mutation in a gene that codes for an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, the testosterone produced by their testes during development is unable to be converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is required for the development of male external genitalia. As a result, people with 5-ARD, despite being biologically male, are born with genitals that appear typically female or somewhat ambiguous. This can lead to some of these 5-ARD newborns to be mistakenly recorded as female on their birth certificates.

Many with 5-ARD are raised as girls, unaware of their condition until puberty when, instead of beginning to menstruate, their internal testes trigger male puberty. This results in masculine (androgenized) features and a physical advantage in sports. This is the most probable condition that applies to Khelif, which is most likely why they withdrew their appeal to the IBA in 2023.

This summarizes our current understanding of Khelif’s condition.

The next question is: Why is Khelif allowed to compete as a woman in the Paris Olympics despite having XY chromosomes, clear visual evidence of high testosterone, and having been disqualified by the IBA for failing to meet inclusion criteria for the women’s category?

In June of 2023, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that “boxing qualifying events and competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will not be run under the authority of the International Boxing Association (IBA).” The IOC cited “very concerning issues of the IBA, such as its governance and its refereeing and judging system” as the reason for this decision. The IOC promised that the new system “puts boxers first, lowering the complexity of the qualification process by using existing regional events and giving up to three qualification opportunities, ultimately achieving a fair and equal pathway for all boxers.”

However, no rigorous guidelines were ever specified. In an interview with Reduxx, Marshi Smith, the co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), states:

In boxing, the recent contentious split between the IBA and the IOC has now placed Olympic eligibility power into the hands of national boxing federations, allowing countries like Algeria and Taiwan to set their own standards and continue placing male boxers in the ring with female athletes in combat for women’s Olympic medals.

This level of incompetence is staggering. Allowing males to compete in any sport is unfair, but their inclusion in women’s combat sports represents a complete disregard for women’s safety. While allowing male athletes like Lia Thomas to compete against female swimmers in college sports is an absurd spectacle, permitting males to fight women in the Olympics recalls the cruel Colosseum blood sports of ancient Rome, where men fought bears and lions.

Progressive media outlets might relish the surge of clicks they gain by distorting biological realities for political gains. However, these lies have real-world consequences. It is not an exaggeration to fear that such distortions may soon get someone killed.

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