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No evidence of Imane Khelif's ban and withdrawal of medals

Posted on by Kennedy
No evidence of Imane Khelif's ban and withdrawal of medals

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The claim: Imane Khelif received a lifetime ban from boxing and was stripped of “all medals.”

A Facebook post from September 23 (direct link, archive link) shows two pictures of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and a picture of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

“Imane Khelif gets life ban after WBO declares him a man, loses all medals and $25 million in prize money,” the post’s caption reads. “'Decision has been made'”

The post was shared more than 5,000 times in a week.

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Our rating: False

There are no credible reports to support the post's claim that Khelif was banned from boxing and stripped of her medals. There is no evidence of such an announcement from the World Boxing Organization

No credible reports. Khelif was banned from the sport and stripped of his medals

Khelif won a gold medal in women's boxing at the Paris Olympics amid a gender eligibility controversy that led to pervasive online harassment, although officials had assured that all athletes participating in boxing “complied with the eligibility and eligibility requirements of the competition, as well.” like all applicable medical regulations.”

Bach said at a press conference on August 3 that there was never any doubt that Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting were women. He called on “really everyone to respect these women, to respect them as women, as people.”

Khelif later filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor's office for “serious online harassment.”

There is no evidence to support the post's claim that Khelif has since been banned from boxing and has lost all of her medals. In the first comment, the social media user who created the post links to an article that repeats the claim but provides no evidence to support it.

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The post refers to the World Boxing Organization, but no such announcement appears on their website or social media accounts. Khelif also made no mention of such a ban on her Instagram account. Khelif's victory at the Paris Olympics garnered widespread media coverage, but there are no credible news reports to support the post's claim.

The World Boxing Organization did not respond to a request for comment.

The Russian-backed International Boxing Association stripped Khelif of a bronze medal she won at the 2023 world championships after she allegedly failed gender tests, but the IOC and others have raised concerns about the integrity of those tests, as USA TODAY previously reported reported. The IBA oversaw Olympic boxing before the IOC stripped it of the right ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Games. As a result, the IOC organized the boxing tournaments, including the qualification process, at the Tokyo Games and more recently at the Paris Games

The IOC has stripped athletes of Olympic medals in the past. For example, 10 athletes lost medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after retesting of samples from those games turned up banned substances, the Associated Press reported. However, nothing resembling the Facebook claim appears on the IOC website and Khelif is still listed as a gold medalist on the Paris 2024 website.

The Facebook post also notes that Khelif lost $25 million in prize money, but there is no evidence that she ever won or lost an award of that amount.

USA TODAY has debunked other false claims about Khelif, including that she was disqualified from the Paris Olympics and that she was featured on a cover of Vogue Algeria.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-checking sources:

  • USA TODAY, August 3: There is no doubt that boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting are women, the IOC president says
  • USA TODAY, August 9, Boxer Imane Khelif wins gold medal: Algerian becomes Olympic champion after controversy
  • World Boxing Organization, accessed September 30, Boxing News
  • Imane Khelif, accessed September 30, Instagram profile
  • IOC, August 1, Joint Statement by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit and the IOC
  • IOC, accessed September 30, IOC News

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USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to impartiality, fairness and transparency. Our fact-checking work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.

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