Imane Khelif has made it clear she is not going anywhere.
The Algerian boxer, who captured women’s welterweight gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, says she will do “anything” required to ensure she can compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, as scrutiny over her eligibility continues to follow her career.
Khelif, 26, has been at the centre of an intense and often hostile debate since her rise to the top of Olympic boxing.
Despite winning gold on sport’s biggest stage, questions around her right to compete in the women’s category have persisted, driven by past disqualifications, changing governance in boxing, and high-profile political interventions.
Speaking to CNN this week, Khelif insisted she has nothing to conceal and would comply with any requirements imposed by the International Olympic Committee if that is what it takes to keep her Olympic dream alive.
“Of course, I would accept doing anything I’m required to do to participate in competitions,” she said.
Her comments come against the backdrop of a fractured boxing landscape. In 2023, Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from the World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after allegedly failing gender eligibility tests. The IBA’s credibility has since collapsed, with the IOC stripping it of official recognition in June 2023.
That decision proved pivotal for Khelif. Cleared by the IOC, she was allowed to compete at the Paris Games, where she delivered one of the standout performances of the tournament. She defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in an early bout before going on to beat China’s Yang Liu by unanimous decision in the final to secure Olympic gold.
Rather than settling the debate, her success reignited it.
Khelif has always competed in women’s categories and has repeatedly rejected claims about her gender identity. Speaking directly about the controversy, she said: “I’m not transgender. I’m a woman. I want to live my life. Please do not exploit me in your political agendas.”
Those words aimed, in part, at US President Donald Trump, who last year referred to Khelif as a “male boxer” after signing an executive order preventing transgender women from competing in female categories of sport in the United States.
The order, controversially titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’, was framed by the Trump administration as a move to protect fairness, but has been criticised by LGBT advocacy and human rights groups as discriminatory.
Khelif’s situation has been further complicated by the emergence of a new governing body. World Boxing was granted provisional recognition by the IOC in February 2025 and has since introduced mandatory genetic testing for athletes to “determine their sex at birth and their eligibility to compete”, per BBC Sport.
When announcing the policy, World Boxing cited Khelif as an example, a move that sparked backlash and ultimately led to a public apology from the organisation’s president. Khelif has so far refused to undergo the new tests and is currently barred from competing in World Boxing events, including those linked to Olympic qualification.
In response, she lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in August, challenging the introduction of mandatory testing. A hearing on that case is still pending, leaving her immediate competitive future uncertain.
Despite that uncertainty, Khelif has struck a more conciliatory tone when it comes to the Olympics themselves. While she has challenged World Boxing’s authority, she has indicated she would comply with testing if overseen by the IOC.
“They should protect women, but they need to pay attention that while protecting women, they shouldn’t hurt other women,” she said.
The wider debate is unlikely to fade before Los Angeles 2028. New IOC president Kirsty Coventry, elected last year after pledging to “protect the female category”, has supported stricter eligibility guidelines and has not ruled out a return to genetic testing using narrower biological markers. That would mark a shift from previous IOC policy, which had described such practices as a “terrible thing to do”.
For Khelif, the issue is no longer just about medals or titles, but about dignity and the right to compete without being publicly questioned at every step. She has endured sustained online abuse and mockery from high-profile figures, yet insists she wants only to box and live her life.
And if that means submitting to tests she believes she should never have been subjected to in the first place, she says she is prepared to do so.
Featured image credit: Instagram/CNN/imane_khelif_10 (screenshots)
