Khelif won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight (66kg) category on Friday against China‘s Liu Yang.
But has been in the spotlight after being subjected to harassment and abuse on social media by those who questioned her gender.
Misinformation on the internet – and the results of an unspecified eligibility test by a controversial and discredited boxing body – led to suggestions that Khelif, along with fellow Olympian Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, was not female.
But Khelif’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said a complaint had been filed with Paris prosecutors on Friday, alleging harassment and abuse after a storm of hateful comments were shared online during the contest of champions.
Imane Khelif celebrates with her gold medal after winning the women’s welterweight boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games amid a storm of controversy
Khelif took the gold after a bout with Liu Yang of China on Friday, defying those who criticised her or spread misinformation about her gender
Imane Khelif of Algeria shakes hands with Liu Yang of China after her win to take the gold
A press release issued by her lawyer Nabil Boudi labelled the harassment ‘the greatest stain on these Olympic Games’
Khelif won gold on Friday in the face of online hatred and baseless claims that she was ‘biologically male’
A press release issued by the lawyer on Saturday evening read: ‘After sporting time comes legal time.
‘Having just won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the boxer Imane Khelif has decided to take on a new fight: that of justice, dignity and honour.
‘Ms Khelif has recruited (our) firm which has filed, yesterday, a complaint for aggravated cyber harassment with the online hate unit of the Paris prosecutor’s’ office.
‘The criminal investigation will determine who has initiated this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign but will also focus on who has fed this digital lynching.
‘The unfair harassment suffered by this champion boxer will remain the greatest stain of these Olympic Games.’
Khelif has defied the misinformation throughout the competition, and told a press conference after winning her medal: ‘I am a woman like any woman. I was born a woman and I have lived as a woman but there are enemies to success and they can’t digest my success.’
She later added: ‘All that is being said about me on social media is immoral. I want to change the minds of people around the world.’
Khelif and Lin are both previous Olympic competitors. The Algerian represented her country at Tokyo 2020, where she was defeated by Ireland’s Kellie Harrington in the quarter-finals, while Lin failed to make it past the early rounds at the same Games.
The row came about because of a reputed eligibility test Khelif underwent in 2023 after she fought Russian boxer Azalia Amineva during the IBA’s women’s world championships in New Delhi.
The International Boxing Association – a troubled and discredited sporting body – said both Khelif and Lin, who also underwent the test, had failed to meet ‘required necessary eligibility criteria’.
Both were dropped from the championships and Amineva, a hitherto undefeated Russian prospect, retained a perfect win record that would have otherwise been halted by Khelif’s victory.
But the IBA has never declared exactly what these tests were, or the results that led to their conclusion to drop the fighters.
However, online misinformation has suggested Khelif possessed XY chromosomes making her biologically male, or had elevated levels of testosterone, or that she was transgender, or intersex.
But Khelif was born female, carries a female passport, and is from Algeria, where it is illegal to change your gender. The IBA has also refused to share further details of its tests, saying the ‘specifics’ would ‘remain confidential’.
Khelif has hit out at online hatred, insisting: ‘I am a woman like any woman…I was born a woman’
Khelif (pictured front right) as a child growing up in Algeria
Lin Yu-Ting is also an Olympic champion after winning the women’s featherweight gold in Paris tonight in the face of online hate
In a statement issued earlier in the Games, the IOC hit out at the ‘aggression against these two athletes…based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure’.
It said: ‘Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination.’
Lin has also scooped a gold medal in the featherweight final after winning her bout on Saturday.
The IBA was dropped by the International Olympic Committee last year (IOC) amid long-standing concerns about its governance and transparency.
The firm is largely financed by Russian state energy firm Gazprom and has been presided over by an Uzbek boss with alleged links to organised crime and, since 2020, a Russian who labelled the IOC president ‘chief sodomite’.
