Female Fighter Who Fought Gold Medalist Imane Khelif Claims Boxer 'Is a Man' Despite Media Claims: Report
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
A former sparring partner of Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif said the Algerian boxer “is a man” who fought with “male power.”
“[Khelif] has some kind of internal issues, but he is a man,” Bulgarian-Nigerian boxer Joana Nwamerue told Reduxx on Aug. 12.
“I will stay [by] my words until he/she does a test to prove to the world that he/she is a WOMAN. But we all know that won’t happen,” the indignant boxer added.
As a reminder, Khelif has denied accusations that she’s transgender.
The boxer said she was born a female, despite having male XY chromosomes.
(Many attribute this to Khelif purportedly suffering from “differences in sex development” or DSD.)
Last year, the Algerian athlete was disqualified from the World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests administered by the International Boxing Association, the world governing body for the sport.
In a March 2023 interview with Tass, IBA president Umar Kremlev said “based on the results of DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women.”
“Based on the results of the tests, it was proven that they have XY chromosomes,” he noted.
The boxers in question were Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan.
President of the International Boxing Association Umar Kremlev tells Sky News that tests in last year’s World Championships were done at the request of coaches.
He went on to say that women’s sport is being “destroyed” by the Olympics.
Read more: https://t.co/B475EWxD8D pic.twitter.com/MkkRrptwRc
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 4, 2024
Joana Nwamerue agrees with Kremlev’s assessment.
On a podcast with Bulgarian footballer Georgi Petkov, Khelif’s former sparring partner said the Algerian boxer “is a man.”
“I think we played three to four sparring sessions [in February]. I have a record of everything,” Nwamerue said, per Reduxx. “I can confirm that this is a man to me. Male power. Men’s techniques, everything.”
She added: “I’m a tomboy. I take a lot of hits, and I know how to hold on. But the other girls are not so strong.”
🚨A female boxer who trained with Imane Khelif has come forward to assert that Khelif “is a man.”
Joana Nwamerue says the Algerian team tried to convince her that Khelif was simply a woman whose chromosomes had been altered by living in the mountains.https://t.co/Q9pxtCj9qR
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 12, 2024
Nwamerue said Khelif’s teammates insisted that “Imane is not a man. She is a woman and just lives high in the mountains with her relatives and parents, and so there may be a change in her testosterone or chromosomes and the like.’”
However, Nwamerue rejected that theory as “absurd,” calling out the fantasy that living in the mountains can magically alters a woman’s DNA so she suddenly spawns male chromosomes.
In the final analysis, Nwamerue said it’s “extremely unfair” to allow Khelif to fight women.
“I think that for me, both of the current cases in boxing — Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting — are men,” she said.
Despite failing the IBA’s gender tests, Khelif and Lin both qualified for the Paris Olympics because the gender eligibility requirements for the Olympics are more lax.
The International Olympic Committee determines gender eligibility based on whatever gender an athlete states they are on their passport.
Given this absurd “standard,” it’s no surprise that both Khelif and Lin each won gold medals at the Paris Games after beating up their female challengers.
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