Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif has revealed that she is prepared to take a sex test in order to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, as she defiantly responded to US President Donald Trump’s claims that she is a ‘male boxer’.
Khelif, 26, rose to global prominence after winning gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but her inclusion and victory at the Games sparked controversy amid claims that she had allegedly failed a gender eligibility test the previous year.
In 2025, World Boxing then confirmed that fighters would be required to undergo mandatory sex screening to compete in their events, singling out Khelif when making the announcement, which the governing body later apologised for.
Khelif has not competed since the tests were introduced, taking her fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to compete without being tested, for which a hearing is yet to be held.
And while the Algerian fighter said she ‘will not surrender’ in her case against the organisation, she is willing to take a sex test in order to compete at the Olympics in two years’ time.
‘Of course, I would accept doing anything I’m required to do to participate in competitions,’ Khelif told CNN.
‘They should protect women, but they need to pay attention that while protecting women, they shouldn’t hurt other women.’
Last year, Trump signed an executive order entitled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’. The president referred to Khelif as a ‘male boxer’ who had ‘transitioned’ and ‘stole the women’s gold medal’ by competing in Paris.
The President doubled down on calling Khelif a ‘male’ during a speech to Republican lawmakers in January.
Trump has previously claimed that Khelif is transgender, comments which are incorrect. The boxer was born female but is believed to possess the SRY gene, which is associated with male sex chromosomes.
When speaking to the French media outlet L’Equipe about Trump’s comments, Khelif said she ‘didn’t ask for any of this’ and that the politics surrounding her situation are ‘beyond’ her.
‘I respect everyone, and I respect Trump because he’s the president of the United States,’ she told L’Equipe. ‘Trump cannot distort the truth. I’m not trans, I’m a girl.
‘I was raised as a girl, I grew up as a girl, people in my village have always known me as a girl.
A ban on transgender women competitors is strongly expected to be in place for the 2028 Olympics – but it remains unclear if there will be barriers against athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) after the boxing furore at Paris 2024.
Under the existing rules, each sport is empowered to decide if transgender women can compete if their testosterone levels fall below a designated threshold.
But the International Olympic Committee, under new president Kirsty Coventry, is in discussions about a dramatic policy shift that would impose a blanket ban across all sports for the Los Angeles Games.
Khelif is adamant that she has the next Olympics in her sights and jokingly claimed that she is training hard so that Trump will put a medal around her neck himself.
‘I respect him if he respects the truth. If I could say something to him? Mr. President, I’m a girl, a young Arab Muslim woman, a boxer. And I’m working so you can come and give me a medal on the podium in Los Angeles.’
The bitter storm that followed Khelif’s victory in Paris dominated the headlines during the summer of 2024.
The scrutiny was so intense that her own mother instructed Khelif to quit the sport. However, there was one thing the fighter would always do whenever those thoughts entered her head.
‘My mother told me, “It’s too hard to take.” The attacks were so vicious that she advised me to quit boxing. I thought about it too. But when I look at my medal, it all fades away.
‘For the three months following the Games, I looked at it every day. I was overwhelmed with emotions. I made so many sacrifices to get it.’
