JK Rowling and Elon Musk have been named in a cyber bullying legal complaint filed by an Olympic champion boxer embroiled in a gender eligibility row.
Imane Khelif, a 25-year-old welterwight fighter, won gold for Algeria in the 66kg category, but her bouts were overshadowed by the heated debate and she faced a barrage of online abuse.
Khelif was disqualified from the World Championships last year when the International Boxing Association (IBA) announced she had failed a gender eligibility test.
But she was cleared to compete in Paris by the International Olympic Committee and went on to win the gold.
The boxer has filed a criminal complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, alleging aggravated cyber harassment and a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” against her.
Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, has now revealed that Harry Potter author Rowling and X/Twitter owner Musk have been named in the legal complaint, while former US President Donald Trump may also be in the firing line.
“What we’re asking is that the prosecution investigates not only these people but whoever it feels necessary”, he said. “If the case goes to court, they will stand trial.”
Khelif, who has repeatedly insisted she is a woman, became the focus of an intense online debate after her second round opponent, Italian fighter Angela Carini, pulled out of their bout within 46 seconds, complaining “it’s not right” and stating she had never been hit so hard before.
Carini later apologised that her remarks had added fuel to the controversy, saying: “If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
Rowling took to social media to share an image from the fight, with the caption: “The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”
In another post, the author said: “I don’t claim Khelif is trans. My objection, and that of many others, is to male violence against women becoming an Olympic sport.”
Musk shared a post which said “men don’t belong in women’s sports” and added the comment that he “absolutely” agreed.
Trump weighed into the debate by also sharing an image of the fight with the caption: “I will keep men out of women’s sports”.
After she won gold, Khelif said: “I’m fully qualified, I’m a woman, I was born a woman, I lived a woman, there’s no doubt about that.
“These people, they are the enemies of success, it’s what I call them, it gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
In her legal complaint to the French authorities, she has described the online abuse as a “digital lynching”.
The IBA, which is locked in a separate dispute with the IOC over claims of corruption, has refused to share details of its gender tests, but had written to the Olympic authorities more than a year ago to say that Khelif has the DNA of a “male”.
As news of the lawsuit emerged, Khelif returned home to Algeria to a hero’s welcome alongside the country’s other Olympic medallists, to be greeted in Algiers by Minister of Youth and Sports Abderrahmane Hammad.
Algerians have vigorously defended the boxer and said the furore surrounding her performances was a by-product of racism.
