Olympic boxing gold medallist Imane Khelif has made a legal complaint against social media platform X for “moral harassment” following her appearance at the Paris Games.
Le Monde newspaper reports that the Algerian fighter has taken her campaign to the Paris correctional court’s national center for combating online hate. Her suit described how her quarter-final appearance in the Olympic competition, during which her opponent withdrew from the ring shortly after the fight began, triggered a flood of hate messages targeting Khelif. She was described as “a transgender person” deliberately competing in the wrong category, and accused of “violence against women.” Her lawyer said these messages were viewed more than 100million times around the world and caused an ordeal for her client during an important sporting competition.
Khelif won the gold medal, beating China’s Yang Liu in the 66kg women’s category on Friday. She said: “I am fully qualified to participate in this competition. I am a woman, I was born a woman, I have lived as a woman and I competed as a woman. There is no doubt about that.
“There are enemies of success – this is what I call them. Of course, that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
The other boxing athlete caught up in a similar gender row, Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, also won gold on Saturday night, triumphing in the 57kg category against Polish rival Julia Szeremeta.
Both gold medallist winners were allowed to participate at Paris despite previously being disqualified by the IBA (International Boxing Association) for failing gender tests. These were overruled by the International Olympic Committee, whose president Thomas Bach said prior to their final matches:
“This is not a question of inclusion, this has never played a role in all this, this is a question of justice: women must be allowed to take part in women’s competitions. And the two are women.
“It is not as easy (as those) in this cultural war may want to portray it, that the XX or XY is the clear distinction between men and women.
“This is scientifically not true anymore. Therefore these two are women and they have the right to participate in the women’s competition. This has nothing to do with inclusion in any way.”
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