Moroccan Boxer Files Complaint After Olympic Gender Controversy Backlash

The Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who is participating in the Paris Olympics, is at the center of a controversy around her gender identity, of which Moroccan boxer Oumayma Belahbib, a member of the International Boxing Association (IBA), is accused on social networks of being partly responsible. "I am accused of being behind the plot against Imane, because I would be her competitor, because I am Moroccan and because I am a member of the IBA," reacts Belahbib to Le Parisien. She claims to have received thousands of threatening and insulting messages on social networks, "more than 200 a day," since August 1, the day of the match between Imane Khelif and Angela Carini, as well as "violent content containing her identity and her face." Belahbib assures that she has nothing to do with it. "It’s a problem between these two boxers (Imane Khelif and Angela Carini) and I’m in the middle," she explained. Exasperated, Belahbib filed a complaint for "cyberbullying", "insults", "death threats" and "defamation".

Many people accuse the Algerian boxer of being "a man" or a "transsexual" person after the very rapid abandonment of her Italian opponent Angela Carini during their fight. Imane Khelif is "born a woman, registered as a woman, living her life as a woman, boxing as a woman," IOC spokesman Mark Adams had hammered on Friday. But the International Boxing Federation (IBA) had ousted the Algerian boxer and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting from the competition in 2023 following gender determination tests. Imane Khelif had "high testosterone levels" and Lin Yu-ting did not "meet the eligibility criteria after a biochemical test," the IBA had said.