Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics this year after a tumultuous run, has male biological characteristics according to a medical report accessed by a French journalist.
The report from the boxer’s medical records accessed by French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia, as reported in Spanish daily Marca, states that Khelif has a 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development that affects exclusively biologically male individuals.
Khelif, who participated in the 66kg category at the Olympics, had been one of the protagonists of the Games because of her condition as a hyperandrogenic woman, with fans embracing her while facing an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who questioned her eligibility or claimed she was a man.
Now, according to the report prepared by medical professionals from Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris and Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital in Algiers from June 2023, Khelif’s anatomy has been detailed. It mentions the absence of a uterus and the presence of what was described as a micropenis. It also recommended surgical correction and hormone therapy, aimed at aligning Khelif’s physical traits with her self-perceived gender identity.
The 5-alpha reductase deficiency mentioned mainly affects boys and prevents
the normal development of the sexual organs. At birth, such male babies have a blind vaginal pouch and, due to the lack of proper diagnosis, they are often assigned a female identity.
Khelif’s gold medal at the Olympics is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing. She is only the nation’s second boxing gold medalist, joining Hocine Soltani (1996) while claiming the seventh gold medal in the country’s Olympic history.
The gender row around her participation at the Games followed Italian boxer Angela Carini pulling out after she sustained a series of crushing blows from the Algerian, who had failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships in 2023.
However, Khelif went on at the Olympics, finally winning the gold, beating Yang Liu of China 5-0 at Roland Garros, with the crowd chanting her name and waving Algerian flags.
“For eight years, this has been my dream, and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medalist,” Khelif said through an interpreter then.
Asked about the scrutiny, she told reporters: “That also gives my success a special taste because of those attacks.”
Written with inputs from AP/PTI
