Imane Khelif sues X in Paris over Olympic harassment

Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif from Algeria has filed a complaint in a Paris court against the platform X (formerly Twitter). Her lawyers claim that the platform contributed to the harassment of the athlete during the Olympic Games.

Imane Khelif filed a complaint against Twitter (now X) in the Paris Correctional Court, which is responsible for combating hate speech online. The 25-year-old boxer, who won the Olympic final in her category on August 9, was subjected to an online hate campaign regarding her gender for days.

The complaint, seen by the French newspaper "Le Monde," concerns moral harassment online. Khelif's victory on August 1, resulting from the withdrawal of Italian boxer Angela Carini in the quarterfinals, sparked a flood of hateful messages on social media. The boxer was described as a transgender person deliberately competing in the wrong category, and even as a man guilty of violence against women.

The Algerian's lawyer, Nabil Boudi, stated in the complaint that "speculations fueled by hateful individuals" were widely distributed on the X platform, where they were viewed over 100 million times. According to Boudi, the controversy turned into a real ordeal for the 25-year-old boxer, who was competing in the Olympic Games. The complaint was filed in the Paris court just a few hours before Khelif won the gold medal in the final fight against Liu Yang from China.

Polish boxer Karolina Michalczuk commented on the cases of Imane Khelif and Yu-Ting Lin, the second boxer who won Olympic gold under the shadow of harmful gender speculations, in an interview with sport.tvp.pl: "[...] they also accused me of not looking like a woman when I had short hair." She added, "It is so humanly painful to be judged based on appearance. And here the whole world is discussing these two athletes just because of their appearance and based on accusations that were never proven."

In the interview with Michalczuk, the source of the problems for Khelif and Lin was also recalled. In 2023, Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Federation and an associate of Vladimir Putin, reported on the alleged results of their chromosomal tests. The boxers were disqualified during the 2023 World Championships after they had reached the medal zone. Michalczuk added, "And he didn’t provide any evidence. These girls now have a huge psychological burden. After all, the Algerian was disqualified shortly after eliminating a Russian from the tournament."