Imane Khelif, Olympic boxer at center of gender dispute, calls for end to ‘bullying’ athletes
Imane Khelif of Algeria, one of the two female boxers at the center of an Olympic gender controversy, pleaded with the public to “avoid bullying all athletes."
One of the two female boxers at the center of an Olympic gender controversy pleaded with the public to “avoid bullying all athletes” Sunday night.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif, 25, made the plea in an interview with Algerian media as she and another female Olympic boxer, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, continue to face intense scrutiny and false accusations about their gender and eligibility to compete with women.
“I address my message to all the people of the world to adhere to the Olympic principles, according to the Olympic Charter, and to avoid bullying all athletes, because this has a great impact and is capable of destroying people, killing people’s thinking and minds, and dividing people,” Khelif told the Algerian broadcaster SNTV in Arabic.
Khelif and Lin have competed for years in women’s events, including at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, and there is no indication that they identify as transgender or intersex, the latter referring to people born with sex characteristics that do not fit strictly into the male-female gender binary.
The International Olympic Committee has fiercely defended Khelif and Lin, with its president describing the widespread incendiary online commentary as “hate speech.”
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