GUWAHATI: Leaked medical reports circulating online recently allege that Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif, who competed in women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has internal testicles, XY chromosomes, and exhibits traits consistent with male biology.
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The medical reports, reportedly a collaborative assessment from the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris and Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital in Algiers, outline Khelif’s anatomy in detail. According to sources, the report describes “an absence of a uterus,” the presence of “gonads in the inguinal canals” (internal testicles), “a blind vagina,” and a micro-penis.
These findings are also attributed to a 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a condition impacting individuals with XY chromosomes that can cause atypical genital development at birth, often leading to female sex assignment despite male chromosomes.
Following Khelif’s disqualification at the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in New Delhi, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended her eligibility for the Olympics, criticising the IBA’s earlier exclusion as “sudden and arbitrary.”
This stance allowed Khelif to compete in Paris, where she went on to win gold. Khelif’s victory saw her bulldoze past Italian opponent Angela Carini, who remarked that she had “never felt a punch like this.”
As a result, prominent figures, including Elon Musk and JK Rowling, weighed in on the controversy during the time of the event, amplifying public interest and sparking debate on social media about fairness in women’s sports.