Last Updated:November 05, 2024, 08:19 IST
The leaked report is believed to have been drafted in June of 2023 via a collaboration between the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris, France, and the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital in Algiers, Algeria.
Imane Khelif. (Picture Credit: AP)
In an unprecedented turn of events, Olympic gold medallist, and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was directly involved in a gender row controversy after her win in Paris, has once again come under major scrutiny after a leaked medical report surfaced.
The medical report, which French journalist Djaffar Ait Aoudia obtained, stated that Khelif was impacted by 5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development said to be found in genetic males.
The leaked report is believed to have been drafted in June of 2023 via a collaboration between the Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital in Paris, France, and the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Hospital in Algiers, Algeria.
What Imane’s leaked medical report stated
An MRI result attached with the report, which was a copy of a thorough physical examination that was conducted on Khelif in order to verify the presence of a disorder of sexual development, also reportedly determined that Khelif had no uterus, but instead had internal testicles and a “micropenis” resembling an enlarged clitoris.
As per Aoudia, after the MRI test, Khelif had also underwent a chromosomal test, which further confirmed that the Algerian has an XY karyotype. A hormone test was also conducted which found that Khelif had a testosterone level typical of males.
After examination, doctors had suggested that Khelif’s parents may have been blood relatives, claimed Aoudia.
The report had also recommended that the boxer be referred for “surgical correction and hormone therapy” along with psychological support.
What is 5-alpha reductase deficiency?
5-alpha reductase deficiency is a condition that affects sexual development of people, who are born genetically male, before birth and during puberty.
Many people with 5-alpha reductase deficiency are assigned female at birth based on their external genitalia, which may be deformed so as to not look clearly male or clearly female.
It is believed that those with the deficiency will lead to early onset masculinization with enhanced muscle growth, hair growth and an absence of breast tissue as early signs.
What are the implications of the find?
Some of those outcomes of having been born with the deficiency may be deemed as “unfair advantages” that Khelif possessed, and this will now unfortunately yet again open up the controversy regarding her gold-medal win at Paris earlier this year.
Khelif was assigned female at birth and it says so on her passport, which is the International Olympic Committee’s threshold for eligibility for boxing because of the rift between the sport’s governing body, the Intenational Boxing Association, and the IOC.
But, what is to be noted is that Khelif also has a history with the IBA, having reached the final of the 2023 World Championships before she was abruptly disqualified, after medical reports cited high levels of testosterone in her system. The circumstances of that disqualification have been considered highly unusual ever since it happened, and Khelif called it “a big conspiracy” at the time.
The IOC has earlier insisted that no scientific or political consensus exists on gender and fairness issues. It gave updated guidance to sports governing bodies in 2021.
News sports Imane Khelif, Algerian Olympic Gold Medallist Boxer, Identified As Man In Leaked Medical Report
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