The Olympics may be over, but Imane Khelif’s war against the truth and those who told it continues unabated.
According to a Wednesday report from the U.K. Telegraph, Khelif — the Algerian gold medalist whose participation drew outrage from many online due to her having failed a chromosomal test at last year’s International Boxing Association world championships — filed a lawsuit with the Paris prosecutor’s office alleging “aggravated cyber harassment” against unnamed individuals.
The suit claims that those involved had engaged in “misogynistic, racist and sexist” behavior online.
Now, just in case you were thinking that this might just be serious trolls who had acted in a threatening manner, nuh-uh. Elon Musk is named, as is J.K. Rowling — and Donald Trump might get thrown into the mix.
Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, told Variety that his client was victimized by “speculation by malicious individuals” and said that “these messages were posted by important political figures.”
This is despite the fact that Khelif’s condition, which could leave her with a significant advantage over other female boxers, is hardly a matter of contention anymore.
While Khelif had pointed to a vague conspiracy against her and Algerians during the Olympics, one of her trainers confirmed to a French publication as the Olympics were winding down that the boxer had tested positive for Disorders of Sexual Difference, which — in her case — means she has male chromosomes but female genitalia.
This means she has both naturally higher testosterone levels and the marked advantage of going through male puberty — something that could pose a risk to other boxers. Both boxers who tested positive for DSD at the IBA world championships in 2023, Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, won gold in their respective divisions.
Now, Khelif is trying to have it both ways by suing people who didn’t think she belonged there because her male chromosomes gave her a performance advantage over other women and created a safety issue.
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“J.K Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others,” Boudi said. He added that filing the suit against unknown persons grants French prosecutors “the latitude to be able to investigate against all people.”
Rowling had posted several times lamenting the fact that Khelif was allowed to box, and Musk shared a Riley Gaines post which stated that “men don’t belong in women’s sports.”
And just when you thought that European Union-based officials couldn’t crack down any harder on the freedom of speech after Thierry Breton, the sitting Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, threatened Musk for interviewing Donald Trump on his platform.
With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA
As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in 🇪🇺 in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk
📧⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024
Oh, and as for the GOP presidential nominee? “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” Boudi said.
Never mind that it’s no longer called “Twitter” or “tweets,” or the fact that Trump didn’t make the remarks on the platform formerly known as Twitter but on Truth Social.
Apparently, if you’re a lawyer of a liberal cause célèbre, you don’t have to worry about the facts.
One understands that this probably isn’t the easiest thing for Khelif to deal with, and one at least had sympathy for her when she said, during the Olympic Games, that bullying “can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” she added at the time.
However, this still didn’t change the fact that the truth, however heartbreaking, was the truth: namely, that Khelif had male chromosomes and a huge physical advantage over her competition which had seen her disqualified by the IBA. Furthermore, given that this was a combat sport, the issue wasn’t just one of fairness, but of safety.
That sympathy is attenuated, however, when Khelif is using French law in order to attempt to punish those who had doubts about her eligibility.
What’s worse is that this might apparently succeed — because in France as in the rest of Europe, telling the truth or having an opinion is actionable if that truth or opinion is impolitic. As with the rest of these sordid Olympics, this is deeply shameful on so many levels.
