Imane Khelif has reportedly been asked to return her Olympic gold medal after gender test results were revealed.
Olympic boxing champ Imane Khelif is back in the headlines— and this time, it’s got nothing to do with her fists.
Khelif’s path to success highlighted.
Imane Khelif’s path to the top was anything but easy— and controversy is just the latest chapter.
Born in Tiaret, Algeria, she began boxing at age 13, a rare feat in a country where the sport is still male-dominated.
Fighting through both social barriers and systemic biases, she rose through national ranks with an aggressive, crowd-pleasing style.
Her international breakthrough came in 2022, when she reached the World Championship final, only to be pulled out due to “medical reasons.”
That withdrawal—later attributed to gender test complications— was an early sign of the storm brewing behind the scenes.
Despite that, Khelif kept training, kept winning, and landed herself a spot at Paris 2024, where she made history.
In October, she announced that professional boxing could be in her future, revealing she had “many offers” and planned to go pro “very soon.”
Controversy around Khelif profiled.
The results are now at the center of a fierce debate— not just about one boxer, but about the future of gender testing in global sports.
Khelif’s gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics had already sparked whispers— after she demolished her Italian opponent in just 46 seconds.
Then came her dominant march to the final, where she clinched victory against China’s Yang Liu with a unanimous decision.
Khelif became the second Algerian in history to win Olympic boxing gold— and was hailed as a national hero, at least for a moment.
But behind the celebrations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was quietly handling a media storm over the legitimacy of her inclusion.
The IOC issued multiple statements defending her eligibility, even as online trolls and conspiracy theorists fueled the drama.
Khelif later filed an official complaint with Paris prosecutors for “aggravated online harassment,” calling the backlash “bullying.”
“I’m not going to be anyone’s scapegoat,” she said in a statement. “I am proud of who I am.”
But before Paris, Khelif had already been banned from the 2023 World Championships in India over a failed “gender eligibility” test.
That test—still undisclosed at the time—led IBA president Umar Kremlev to claim she had XY chromosomes.
This is where things get murky: the IBA, under Kremlev’s leadership, was later stripped of its Olympic governance powers due to “integrity issues.”
Enter the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), a newly formed organization that cleared Khelif based on her passport and national eligibility.
The IOC’s spokesman, Mark Adams, responded to the leaked results by discrediting them entirely, calling the process “illegitimate.”
“These are not legitimate tests,” Adams said firmly during a Paris press conference. “This doesn’t deserve any response.”
But the documents are still out there. And whether the results are valid or not, the internet isn’t letting go.
Khelif’s test results unveiled.
Alleged sex test results from March 2023 have been published— sparking a fresh firestorm around the Algerian welterweight.
According to journalist Alan Abrahamson, the test showed a “male karyotype,” throwing her Olympic triumph under scrutiny.
The test, reportedly conducted at Dr Lal PathLabs in New Delhi, was said to be confirmed by both the American College of Pathologists and ISO-certified.
The summary? One word: “Abnormal.” And it’s the kind of abnormal that headlines are made of.
Khelif’s future debated.
If she wants a second Olympic gold at LA 2028, she’ll face hurdles. World Boxing, now IOC-recognized, requires sex verification that she has not yet passed.
As it stands, Khelif is indefinitely banned from World Boxing events until she proves the absence of a Y chromosome.
That ban could end her Olympic career— unless something drastic changes in the rules or the science.
While the court of public opinion debates the leaked test, Khelif continues to train, post, and insist she’s done nothing wrong.
But in a sport where every punch is counted and every gram is measured, this fight might be the toughest of her life—outside the ring.