Megan Rapinoe has become the latest name in American sport to throw her weight behind Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and criticize those who have been spreading misinformation about her.
Rapinoe knows full well what it is like to have immense focus put on your physical appearance as well as a lot of negative press. Her football career was packed with controversy, much of it blown way out of proportion.
Imane Khelif’s training session amidst controversy over 46-second Olympic bout
Rapinoe shared on her Instagram story a post from Edge of Sports, which sided with the Algerian boxer.
“Solidarity with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who deserves so much better than this tsunami of racism, misogyny, and transphobia being heaped upon her by a coterie of fascists, right-wingers, and useful idiots,” Edge of Sports wrote in its caption.
The page added: “It’s also an example – like with sprinter Caster Semenya – of how transphobia also oppresses cis women who don’t conform to a bigot’s standards of what a woman is supposed to look like.”
Major boxing controversy
Perhaps the biggest media storm of the Olympics so far has been created thanks to the fight against Italy’s Angela Carini, as much of the world has decided that Khelif is effectively a man despite her being documented as a woman and hailing from a country where conversion therapy is illegal.
Carini appeared to opt out of the fight soon after it started, feeling that she was up against a man rather than a woman.
Khelif has been banned from prior competitions for failing genetic testing. The International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Khelif after discovering that the boxer had XY chromosomes.
In a 2023 statement, IBA said: “Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competitions.”
She was cleared to take part in the Olympics given she is a female on all documentation.
