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Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif revealed she experienced “fear” after former President Donald Trump and X CEO Elon Musk questioned her gender.
The Algerian boxer — who was at the center of a gender controversy at the 2024 Olympic Games following her first-round bout against Italy’s Angela Carini that lasted 46 seconds — said the international fallout “hurt me a lot” and “affected me a lot.”
Trump referred to Khelif as “he,” while Musk engaged with an X post that indirectly referred to Khelif as a man.
“Elon Musk, Trump, this thing that affected me, I’m not lying to you, it affected me,” Khelif said in an interview, as translated in a video posted by journalist Sulaiman Ahmed. “It affected me a lot, it hurt me a lot. I can’t describe to you the amount of fear I had. I was afraid that I would say, why did Imane Khalif insist on this? Why was there an uproar from big politicians around the world? I was afraid, but thank God, I was able to overcome this stage thanks to the specialists who helped me overcome this stage.
“The scenario was very scary. Thank God, all the people of Algeria and the Arab world knew Imane Khelif with her femininity, her courage, her will.”
Khelif’s gender became an international storyline during the Paris Games after Carini conceded 46 seconds into their fight, sparking an onslaught of criticism.
That followed Khelif’s disqualification from the 2023 IBA World Boxing Championships due to alleged elevated testosterone levels.
Hours after Khelif won the gold medal by defeating China’s Yang Liu, Trump repeatedly called Khelif “he” during his campaign rally in Montana.
“I’d like to congratulate the young woman who transitioned from a man into a boxer. You saw, he won — she won — the gold medal. How about the young Italian, beautiful Italian boxer, she got in there and didn’t know what was going on. She’s a very good boxer against other women, she didn’t count on this. And he’s up here, boom, one little jab, woah, she goes, ‘Nobody ever hit me that way. Then, he goes, boom, and she said, ‘OK, I had enough.’ It’s crazy what they’re doing and this person won the gold medal, didn’t they win the gold medal today…
“How crazy is it? How crazy is it? For four more years … and (Kamala Harris) wants it. She wants men to play in women’s sports.”
Khelif does not identify as transgender and was born female.
Musk offered his two cents on the controversy earlier this month by responding to a quote tweet from former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines that stated, “Men don’t belong in women’s sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini,” along with a picture of the Italian boxer, who said Khelif hit her harder than anyone she’s ever faced.
“Absolutely,” Musk posted in a quote tweet.
Khelif has since named Musk, along with “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, in a cyberbullying lawsuit, according to Variety.
Nabil Boudi, Khelif’s attorney, said Trump will “inevitably be looked into” by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
“J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others,” Boudi told the outlet. “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”
Khelif said the questions about her gender have harmed her and others.
“Honestly, I don’t like to get into politics in sports, but they got into politics in sports,” she said during the aforementioned interview. “Sports and politics are two separate things. These politics who are oppressing me, they don’t have the right to say that I’m a transgender.
“This is a big shame for my family, for the honor of my family, for the honor of Algeria, for the women of Algeria and especially for the Arab world. The whole world knows that I’m a Muslim girl.”
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