Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif revealed in an interview with French sports daily L’Equipe that she had undergone hormone treatments to lower her testosterone levels ahead of the 2024 Paris Games, but reaffirmed that she is not “transgender.”
Khelif was embroiled in a gender row at the Games where she won gold in the women’s 66kg category, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won gold in the women’s 57kg category.
“I have female hormones, and people don’t know this, but I have taken hormone treatments to lower my testosterone levels for competitions,” the 26-year-old Algerian said in the interview published on Wednesday.
Photo: Reuters
Khelif confirmed she has the SRY gene, located on the Y chromosome that indicates masculinity.
“Yes, and it’s natural,” she said, adding that she is “surrounded by doctors, a professor is monitoring me... For the Paris Games qualifying tournament, which took place in Dakar, I lowered my testosterone levels to zero.”
Like Lin, Khelif found herself at the center of a gender row that attracted comments from US President Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
“I respect everyone, and I respect Trump, because he is the president of the United States, but he cannot distort the truth. I am not a trans woman, I am a girl. I was raised as a girl, I grew up as a girl, the people in my village have always known me as a girl,” Khelif said.
The boxer, who aims to compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, said she is ready to take the mandatory gender testing imposed by World Boxing.
“For the next Games, if I have to take a test, I will. I have no problem with that,” she said. “I’ve already taken this test. I contacted World Boxing, I sent them my medical records, my hormone tests, everything, but I haven’t had any response. I’m not hiding, I’m not refusing the tests.”
The Chinese Taipei Boxing Association in September last year said that it received no response from World Boxing after submitting required tests to the global sports body for Lin ahead of the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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