Elon Musk and JK Rowling have been named by Olympic Champion Imane Khelif in a lawsuit filed with French authorities.
Khelif has been the centre of a gender eligibility debate after competing in the women’s 66kg boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Khelif become only the second Algerian to win a gold medal at the Games after defeating China’s Yang Liu via unanimous decision on Friday.
After it was revealed that she had previously been banned by the IBA from competing at World Championships after failing unspecified gender tests, Khelif sparked fierce debate online, and now she has hit back.
As reported by Variety, Khelif and her legal team have filed a criminal case against social media X over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment.”
In the lawsuit, both X boss Musk and author Rowling were named in the body of the complaint, which under French law was technically filed against unknown persons.
Nabil Boudi, Khelif’s lawyer, revealed that this is done to “ensure that the prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people” including hateful users who have anonymous accounts or pseudonyms.
He added: “J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others.”
Boudi also confirmed that former US President Donald Trump, while not currently named, will be looked at during the lawsuit.
“Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” said Boudi.
In the first round of the Paris Olympics, Khelif defeated Angela Carina when the Italian boxer withdrew after just 46 seconds as she said she had never felt a punch as hard as the Algerian’s.
Imane Khelif defeated Angela Carina after 46 seconds in the first round of the women’s 66kg boxing event at the Paris Olympic Games. (Image: Getty)
After the victory, Rowling took to her X account to post an image of the two boxers after the fight, alongside the caption: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s 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.”
Since then, Rowling has posted dozens of messages speaking out against Khelif’s inclusion at the Games.
Meanwhile Musk reposted a swimmer Riley Gaines’ claimed that “men don’t belong in women’s sports,” alongside his own comment simply stating, “Absolutely.”
Trump’s response to Khelif’s victory over Carina was a promise for his ongoing election campaign for the US Presidency, reading: “I will keep men out of women’s sports!”
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