The Imane Khelif Gender Controversy: Tracing The History Of Gender Testing In Sports

“I send a message… to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects. It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind," said 25-year-old Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, after being subjected to gender scrutiny at the 2025 Olympic games.

Khelif was embroiled in a gender controversy after her match with Italian boxer Angela Carini. Competing in the women’s 66kg division match, Carini quit in 46 seconds, breaking down in the ring, and stating that she quit to ‘preserve her life.’ The internet erupted with commentary around how Khelif was a ‘biological man’ who had an unfair advantage over her opponent, while many, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), supported Khelif’s participation.

At the core of the controversy was an age-old debate about whether women with Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) and higher levels of testosterone should be allowed to participate in women’s events or not.

We trace the history of this debate and the discrimination many female athletes have faced based on these criteria.

The Khelif Controversy - What Sparked The Gender Row

Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were the centre of this controversy as they both were assigned female at birth, and had previously participated in the Olympic games. However, they failed an unspecified ‘sex test’, conducted by the International Boxing Association (IBA), leading to their disqualification at the World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year.

Celebrities like author JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sided with Carini, the boxer who quit against Khelif, saying that the competition was unfair.

It is important to note that the IBA had been expelled from the Olympic movement last year, due to governance and other issues. The IBA, post the controversy said in a statement that the two boxers "did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognised test, whereby the specifics remain confidential."

Mark Adams of the IOC condemned the controversy, saying that “the testosterone test is not a perfect test. Many women can have male levels of testosterone and still be women and compete as women.”

Thomas Bach, IOC president added, “We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women.. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”

Khelif isn’t the first cis woman to be subjected to scrutiny over gender, due to certain biological traits. Over the years, who qualifies as a ‘legitimate woman competitor’ in the games, has been widely debated. We try to trace this back, and understand whether these biological differences even translate to physical advantage.

Differences of Sex Development (DSD) and Women Athletes

Khelif is neither trans, and nor does she identify as intersex. She reportedly has Differences of Sex Development (DSD), according to factsheets released by GLAAD and InterACT.

Differences in Sex Development (DSD) are a group of uncommon conditions involving genes, hormones, and reproductive organs, which can result in atypical sexual development, according to the NHS. These conditions may lead to scenarios where a person has XY chromosomes but develops female characteristics.

The World Athletics rules on athletes with DSD, as specified here, only apply to ‘androgen-sensitive’ people, referring to those who can use androgen and higher testosterone levels in their bodies. Simply put, the DSD rules don’t apply to athletes competing as men.

The rule specifies that they are applicable to those ‘legally female (or intersex)’, who have either male chromosomes (XY) or female chromosomes (XX), and testes instead of ovaries, circulating testosterone in the male range (7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L) not the (much lower) female range (0.06 to 1.68 nmol/L); and the ability to make use of that testosterone circulating within their bodies.

But do higher levels of testosterone translate to advantages for the athletes? We take a look at that later.

First, we dive into the history of gender rows, and require ‘proof of being female’ in Olympics and other sports.

Historical Roots of Gender Testing in Sports

Historian and journalist Michael Waters’s The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports traces the roots of gender testing back to the 1936 Olympics, held in Nazi Germany.

It is key to note here that the founder of the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, didn’t want women to compete in the games. For more on that, read: Women In The Olympics: Exploring The Gender Divide Through Pics And Data.

Water outlines how there were general anxieties around women athletes and masculine women. In 1948, IAAF, which is now known as World Athletics, required every who wanted to compete to submit a note from a doctor, certifying their gender.

Over time, women competitors were subjected to being stripped, their nude bodies paraded, and other gynaecological tests to determine whether they would be allowed to compete.

Since then, these tests have taken various forms and formats but have persisted across different sports.

Key Athletes, Like India’s Dutee Chand, Fought for Their Rights

Athletes affected by this, have fought trials challenging these norms and rules.

The IOC once adopted the Barr body Test which examined a person's chromosomes. Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño was removed from the Spanish Olympic team in 1985 after failing this test, which revealed she had an XY chromosome and Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).

Due to AIS, Martínez-Patiño's body was unable to respond to the testosterone it produced, leading officials to conclude that she was not gaining an unfair advantage by competing in female hurdling events. She faced dismissal despite this, but successfully challenged it in court, and won the case. Despite this, this victory came at the cost of her privacy, her residency, scholarship, and personal relationships.

The IAAF guidelines have changed several times since then in a bid to be more inclusive, but human rights advocates continue to say that these tests, even in their present formats, “discriminate against women on the basis of their sex, their sex characteristics, and their gender expression” and violate the right to privacy, dignity, health and non-discrimination.

South African athlete Caster Semenya was forced to undergo a sex verification process after representing her country in 2009. World Athletics introduced testosterone testing, set a limit of 10.0nmol/L for athletes with DSD competing in women's categories. Athletes with DSD were given two options: medically suppress their testosterone levels or withdraw from competition.

In 2015, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand contested this rule at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), after she was dropped from the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the last minute due to hyperandrogenism. The CAS ruled in Chand's favour and asked World Athletics to provide evidence of the extent of advantage conferred by higher testosterone levels. Consequently, the testosterone limit was temporarily lifted. However, in 2019, World Athletics reinstated the rule with a reduced limit of 5.0nmol/L. Semenya challenged this new limit at the CAS but lost the case.

The Complexities of Testosterone

Many have questioned whether it is unfair if a hormone is naturally produced in excess in some bodies over others, especially when there’s no involvement of cheating or doping.

There has been no conclusive scientific evidence to show that extra testosterone translates to physical or athletic advantage. In the present gender row case, the targetted athletes, Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, have been beaten by women in several games in the past.

Critics have also highlighted how these tests have historically subjected women to unnecessary medical interventions, such as testosterone suppression, which in turn comes with several side effects.

In 2016, a report highlighted that "several athletes have undergone gonadectomy (removal of reproductive organs) and partial clitoridectomy without the presence of any symptoms or health conditions that justified such procedures."

Overall, sex testing overall has been called humiliating, invasive, and unnecessary by athletes in the past.

Beyond Testosterone, the Real Challenges That Play A Divisive Role

Some critics have noted that unfairness in sports can be multi-layered, as height or muscles or other bodily features may play an equally important role in helping some athletes an edge over others.

Competitive advantages come in all shapes, sizes and forms.

A paper on this issue states, “An athlete might have a competitive advantage because good height is a family trait, or because she was raised at high altitude, or because she had access to elite coaching from an early age. A truly equal playing field, one that controls for all variations that produces competitive advantages, would never work in sport, because it would produce no winners and no losers.”

Training facilities, national incomes, and several other factors play crucial roles too.

The social barriers women face remain a common experience, as all women, including intersex women or women with DSDs, find fewer opportunities, scrutiny of their bodies whenever they participate, and a public gaze that questions their femininity.