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Tipsheet

Imane Khelif's Trainer Is Speaking Out

AP Photo/John Locher

Last week, the world watched in horror as an athlete believed to have male chromosomes beat up a woman in a boxing match that lasted less than a minute. 

Townhall covered how a female boxer, Angela Carini, from Italy, quit after just 46 seconds against her opponent, Imane Khelif, from Algeria. Many reports indicate that Khelif is believed to be a biological male with XY chromosomes. 

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Last year, Khelif was not permitted to compete in an international boxing championship for women because he failed a gender eligibility test.

In remarks, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach claimed that Khelif was eligible to compete against women. 

This week, former Olympian boxer and Olympic boxing trainer Rafa Lozano said in an interview with Radio Marca that Khelif was considered too dangerous for women to train against during a retreat in Spain. 

“They were doing a training camp here at the Blume and we couldn't put her with anyone. We put her with Jennifer Fernández and it hurt her. Whoever we put her with, it hurt her. We put her with José Quiles and they were equally matched. From my point of view I don't see it as fair,” Lozano said in the interview. Quiles is a male boxer from Spain.

As for what unfolded last week at the Olympics, Lozano said, "I don't see it as fair, I don't see it as equitable. Everyone can think what they want, but that's how I see it."

That’s not all. According to Reduxx, in an exclusive interview with Le Point magazine, Khelif’s coach, Georges Cazorla, confirmed that Khelif “has a male karyotype and high testosterone.”

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The biological tests carried out by the IBA in 2023 indicated that Khelif might not be female, he explained (via Reduxx):

Cazorla is the President of the Association for Research and Evaluation in Physical Activity and Sport (AREAPS), a scientific advisor, and a former lecturer University of Bordeaux who supervised the master’s thesis of Khelif’s manager, Nasser Yefsah. At the end of 2022, Yefsah contacted Cazorla to assist with Khelif’s training for the world championships, the African championships and the Olympic Games.

“The [disqualification] was based on tests. Frankly, I found it disgusting. Regardless of the results of these biological tests and, without going into detail – that is a matter for biologists and doctors – this poor young girl was devastated, devastated to suddenly discover that she might not be a girl,” Cazorla said.

He goes on to continuously assert that Khelif lived as a girl and has a “girl’s sensitivity,” but adds that Khelif has a “special” body type. When asked if individuals with “XY profiles” have specific physical advantages over those with “XX profiles,” Cazorla refused to say whether males were generally stronger than females.

“Some say that special categories should be made, but even within a group of hypoandrogenic or hyperandrogenic people, there are differences between them. There is such a large variation that we cannot constitute categories,” Cazorla said, appearing to bizarrely reject the validity of sex-based sport categories.

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Khelif was not the only athlete to stir up controversy at the Olympics. Lin Yu‑ting, another boxer who failed a gender eligibility test and was disqualified from an international competition last year, participated in the Olympics. Lin easily defeated female athlete Sitora Turdibekova, from Uzbekistan.

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