The case seemed over. It is picking up speed again. According to a medical report revealed by a journalist from the French-speaking online media Le Correspondant, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, gold medalist at the Paris 2024 Games in the under 66 kilos category, is actually a man. The document details the results of a medical examination conducted in June 2023 at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital in Paris, with the support of the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine hospital in Algiers. It states that the boxer, at the center of an interminable controversy during the last Games, has XY chromosomes, typically associated with the male sex, and has internal testicles. The examination also reveals the presence of a micropenis and the absence of a uterus, symptoms of a disorder called 5-alpha reductase deficiency, which alters sexual development. As a reminder, Imane Khelif had been disqualified by the IBA from the 2023 Women's World Championships in New Delhi, after medical tests whose results the body chaired by Russian Umar Kremlev did not wish to communicate. But she was authorized by the IOC to participate in the Paris 2024 Games, Lausanne emphasizing that she has a women's passport and has spent her entire sporting career in the women's ranks. Unsurprisingly, the IBA was quick to react to the revelations of the Le Correspondant. In a statement sent on Tuesday, November 5, Umar Kremlev attacked the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, saying that they have " violated all the rules of sport by pitting a man against a woman." The Russian asks Thomas Bach and his team to " to make a verbal and written apology to the global boxing community (…), to kneel and apologize to the girls who were beaten and abused. » Unlikely to happen.
