Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was at the centre of a dispute over gender eligibility for the 2024 Paris Olympics, has filed a complaint of online harassment.
Khelif’s lawyer said on Saturday that she had filed a complaint with the Paris public prosecutor’s office for “serious online harassment.”
“Boxer Imane Khelif has decided to start a new fight, a fight for justice, dignity and honor,” Nabil Boudi said in a statement.
“The investigation will establish who is behind this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign, but will also have to look at those who supported the online lynchings,” he added.
The “unjustified harassment” to which the world boxing champion was subjected would “remain the biggest stain on these Olympic Games,” Boudi said.
She won the gold medal in the women’s 66 kg category at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Friday.
Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Championship in New Delhi because she failed the eligibility tests for her gender, the International Boxing Federation said.
No details are known about what exactly the IBA tested and what the results were, but it was made clear that testosterone hormone levels were not a determining factor in the gender determination tests.
However, she was deemed eligible to compete in the women’s category at this summer’s Olympic Games by the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), an ad hoc unit of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The IOC described the IBA’s decision to disqualify Khelif as “arbitrary” and “without due process” and confirmed that she was fully eligible to compete in women’s boxing at Paris 2024.
The controversy surrounding Khelif escalated after Italian Angela Carini stopped her boxing match against the Algerian in the round of 16 after just 46 seconds.
Carini gave up after the Algerian landed the first clean punch of the fight.
After the punch in the face, Carini immediately turned to her team and decided to stop the fight against Kehlif.
The Italian boxer soon fell to her knees and burst into tears.
Carini could be heard telling her trainer, “That’s not fair, that’s not fair,” and later told reporters that she had never been hit so hard in her entire boxing career.
Later, when the OIC asked her to stop spreading “misinformation” about Khelif, Carini apologized to her for refusing to shake her hand after his withdrawal from the game.
In her apology to Khelif, she said she was “sad” about the controversy surrounding the game.
“If the IOC has said she can compete, I respect that decision,” she said.
“I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics went up in smoke.
“I have nothing against Khelif. If I met her again, I would hug her.”
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement condemning the actions of certain foreign media, describing them as “lies” and “unethical attacks and defamation of our esteemed athlete Imane Khelif through baseless propaganda.”
On Friday, Khelif said after her victory that winning the gold medal was the best answer to her critics.
When asked by reporters about the dispute over her eligibility to participate, she said: “I am fully qualified to participate, I am a woman like any other. I was born a woman, lived as a woman and competed as a woman.”
