Algerian gold medallist says she has ‘nothing to hide’ and vows to defend her title at the 2028 Summer Games in the US.
Published On 19 Mar 2025
Imane Khelif, who won Paris Olympics boxing gold amid a gender-eligibility row, is determined to defend her title at the 2028 Los Angeles Games and says she will not be intimidated by United States President Donald Trump.
“I will give you a straightforward answer, I am not transgender,” Khelif told ITV in an interview aired on Tuesday.
“This does not concern me, and it does not intimidate me.”
Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from female sports in the United States last month and called Khelif “a male boxer” in his speech after signing the order.
Under the order signed in February, federal government funding will be denied to educational institutes that allow trans girls and women to participate in female sports and use female locker rooms.
Trump also said he would push the International Olympic Committee, which has left the issue of trans people’s participation in sport to international governing bodies, to explicitly endorse gender-based participation before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject,” the US president said.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended boxing’s inclusion in the 2028 Games on Monday and Khelif said she dreamed of retaining her title in California.
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