What are the odds of Khelif winning a defamation lawsuit against Boebert? She’s falsely accusing her of being trans and therefore being ineligible to participate in women’s boxing.
Well an Olympic athlete is probably a public figure in this context, so she’d need to show that Boebert defamed her “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
Pretty good, I’d wager.
Remember there’s a harm component as well - Khelif is Algerian, where being outed as LGBTQIA of any stripe can get you killed by the state.
It’s a little more complicated than that:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imane_Khelif
"In March 2023, Khelif competed for the gold medal in the finals at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships; however, she was disqualified shortly before her gold medal bout against Chinese boxer Yang Liu for failing to meet the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) eligibility criteria. According to the Algerian Olympic Committee, Khelif was disqualified due to medical reasons; later reports indicated her testosterone levels were too high to compete.[21][22] Uzbekistani boxer Navbakhor Khamidova was awarded the bronze medal instead of Imane Khelif.[23]
In 2023, IBA president Umar Kremlev said that the disqualifications were because DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes”.[24][25] The Washington Post stated, “It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed [in 2023] to lead to the disqualifications”,[25][26] further writing, “There never has been evidence that […] Khelif […] had XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone.”[25] The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the “specifics remain confidential”.[27]"
Why does matter? She’s not transgender in any way, making Boeberts claims false.
Boebert isn’t the first person to make the claim and they have been sanctioned previously. Like I say, it’s a complex matter.
IBA was itself disqualified for corruption and being slanted pro Russia.
They never provided evidence to their claims, and can you imagine that this disqualification was involved right after she won against a Russian boxer?
Why didn’t they do it after she won against Nigerian (IIRC) boxer? Or what about her losing 9 times to other women?
from this article:
She had previously competed without issues and was disqualified by the sport’s governing body only after she defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament. The IBA is controlled by Umar Kremlev, who is Russian and brought in the state-owned energy supplier Gazprom as its primary sponsor and moved much of the governing body’s operations to Russia.
This week, the IOC described it as “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” in which Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan “were suddenly disqualified without any due process.” Lin was suspended for failing to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.
The reasons for the two disqualifications are extremely murky, as is almost always the case with the IBA. The governing body has revealed little about the nature of the tests, including what was tested and who tested it. This lack of transparency would be unacceptable in major Olympic sports, and the IBA has been banned from the Olympics since 2019.
It’s not more complicated. Following emphasis mine.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Boxing_Association
AIBA TO IBA: “In December 2021, the abbreviated name was changed to IBA in an attempt to rebrand the organisation and distance itself from the former administration.”
“…The organization has been involved in multiple corruption scandals including on several editions of the Summer Olympic Games. In December 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the governance of AIBA…”
“…In September 2021, an independent report found that bouts leading up to and during the 2016 Rio Olympics had been manipulated. To investigate boxing at the 2016 Summer Olympics and potential corruption of the AIBA, Canadian lawyer Professor Richard McLaren was appointed by AIBA to conduct a three-stage investigation. The report found bouts had been manipulated for money (up to $250,000), the perceived benefit of AIBA…”
“The IOC had been alarmed by the fact that the IBA’s only sponsor is a Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine”
“In February 2023, USA Boxing announced its decision to boycott the 2023 World Championships (organized by the International Boxing Association)…, also accusing the IBA of attempting to sabotage IOC-approved qualification pathway for the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
The IBA is a corrupt organization, funded by a Russian, state-run, company. Them disqualifying someone carries no weight.
