Did Elon Musk decide to withdraw support for the World Boxing Organization unless Imane Khelif's medal and $25 million bonus are revoked? No, that's not true: The article cited in the comments of a social media post making this claim did not offer any quotes or sources to confirm this. A search on X for an announcement by Musk did not find any matching results. The World Boxing Organization had nothing about this on its website.
The claim appeared in a post and an article (archived here) on Facebook on January 21, 2025. It opened:
Elon Musk Withdraws Support for WBO Programs Unless Imane Khelif's Medal and $25 Million Bonus Are Revoked.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Jan 29 23:03:41 2025 UTC)
The comment section contained a link to an article posted on Jokesdaddy.com (archived here) with a headline that echoed the claim in the post. The article opened:
Elon Musk has made a surprising decision that is causing big discussions in sports and business. He announced that he will stop supporting the World Boxing Organization (WBO) programs unless they take back Imane Khelif's medal and the $25 million bonus given to her.
There was no evidence in the post nor the article to confirm the claim. No sources were cited and the article did not include any links to credible news reports about this.
No such news was found on the World Boxing Organization website (archived here).
Athlete 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. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected such claims (archived here).
Lead Stories published a fact check in September 2024 that debunked the claim that the World Boxing Organization declared Khelif was a man and forced her to return her medals and prize money.
A search on X (archived here) for Musk demanding Khelif be forced to give up her medals and return her $25 million bonus found no matching posts on the social media site that he owns.
Had Musk made such an announcement, it would have been national and international news, but a Google search using the quote from the article, "Sports should not be affected by political agendas. Until the WBO fixes this, I won't support their programs," found no matching news reports.
The JokesDaddy.com website that published the article has a Disclaimer page (archived here) that explains the site does not guarantee the information is accurate:
The information provided ('we,' 'us' or 'our') on www.jokesdaddy.com is for general informational purposes only. All information on the Site [and our mobile application] is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information on the Site [or our mobile application].
The About page (archived here) on JokesDaddy.com claims the site is for humor:
Our main goal is to share jokes for your entertainment. In addition, we also share articles, stories. quotes.
Other Lead Stories fact checks regarding claims about Imane Khelif can be found here and about Elon Musk here.
