Did the World Boxing Organization say Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif was actually a man, banning her from boxing for life and forcing her to return all her medals and prize money? No, that's not true: An attorney for the organization told Lead Stories that it has not taken any position on Khelif's gender and that she has never even boxed in any of its competitions. The group that declared Khelif a man was the International Boxing Association, and there is no evidence that they forced her to return any medals or prize money.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) on the Sports News Blog website on September 3, 2024. The headline read:
'ACCEPT THE DECISION' Imane Khelif Is Furious After Being Banned For Life After The Wbo Declared Him A Man, Losing All His Medals And $25 Million Prize
This is what the post looked like on Sports Blog News at the time of writing:
(Source: Sports News Blog screenshot taken on Tues Sep 10 14:48:45 2024 UTC)
Imane Khelif became embroiled in controversy during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games after several commentators accused her of competing in the women's boxing competition as a biological man. Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected such claims (archived here), this fact check will refer to Khelif using the feminine pronoun.
The World Boxing Organization (WBO), one of the four main associations that permit and organize title fights, has not made any determination in relation to Khelif's gender, WBO legal counsel Gustavo Olivieri told Lead Stories in an e-mail on September 10, 2024. He explained that the WBO had interviewed a doctor who declared Khelif a man in a podcast published on YouTube on August 14, 2024 (beginning at the 5:00 mark, archived here). Olivieri stressed that the doctor:
rendered her professional medical opinion, which does not bind nor represent the WBO's position in this matter. In other words, the doctor is solely responsible for her comments, opinions and representations.
Khelif has not boxed in any WBO competitions, Olivieri added, and the organization had not slapped her with a lifetime ban or forced her to return medals and prize money, as the Sports News Blog article claimed:
The WBO lacks any personal or subject matter jurisdiction to impose any bans or sanctions against an athlete not subject to the WBO rules and regulations. Khelif is an amateur fighter and not a WBO Participant engaging under WBO rules. Therefore, news or reports otherwise are patently false.
Confusion about the WBO's position on Khelif's gender may arise from an interview that its European vice president, former featherweight champion István Kovács, gave to the Hungarian Magyar Nemzet newspaper, published on August 2, 2024 (archived here). Kovács said the International Boxing Association (IBA) -- not the WBO -- had determined that Khelif was a biological man (archived here) and that, therefore, she should not box against women at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Kovács said (translation from Hungarian by Lead Stories):
The saddest thing in this story is that the problem is not with Khelif's testosterone level, which can be adjusted these days, but rather with the results of the gender examination, based on which it clearly turned out that the Algerian boxer was a biological man ... I immediately reported all this in writing to the responsible people at the IOB, and as incredible as it may be, they have not reacted to this very day.
Kovács did not mention anything about prize money, medals or a lifetime ban in the interview.
The IBA, which sanctions amateur matches, disqualified Khelif at the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi (archived here). A keyword search conducted on Google on September 10, 2024, (archived here) did not turn up any evidence that the IBA had forced Khelif to return medals or prize money.
The IOC withdrew recognition of the IBA in June 2023 (archived here). Khelif took home the gold medal in the women's welterweight division at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Imane Khelif can be found here.
