‘You hate me but you don’t even know me’
Imane Khelif has hit back at Elon Musk for his “cruel” attack on the boxer during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khelif won boxing gold in Paris over the summer, becoming Algeria’s first in women’s boxing and their first across all categories since 1996.
However, the boxer faced a tirade of scrutiny after it came to light that she had been disqualified from the Women’s World Championships last year for failing the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) gender eligibility rules.
Khelif has always competed in the women’s division and has never identified as anything other than female since birth.
Despite being allowed by the International Olympic Committee to compete in Paris, she faced an onslaught of online hatred and abuse from people all across the internet.
For some time Khelif may have been one of the most famous people in the world with some of the most important and well-known world figures chiming in on the matter.
Notably, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and Donald Trump, who have 300 million followers between them, spoke out against the boxer after things intensified when Italy’s Angela Carini walked out of the ring after 46-seconds initially calling the bout unfair, but later apologised to the Algerian.
During the turmoil, American swimmer Riley Gaines published a post which read: “Men don’t belong in women’s sports”.
To this, Elon Musk replied: “Absolutely”.
The comments from Musk, Trump and Rowling were seen to incite further hatred online.
Now Khelif has spoken out against Musk who owns the social media site X, describing his actions as “cruel” on French TV show Clique.
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The interviewer asked Khelif what the impact of someone so powerful attacking her on social media was.
The boxer replied: “Elon Musk was one of the first to attack me during this hate campaign, he posted this video and it was retweeted. So, he was one of the first to have spread this buzz, this campaign against me.
“You hate me, but you don’t even know me, I don’t even know why you’ve led this campaign of hate against me. You’ve been unfair to me, you’ve been unfair to my family, you’ve been unfair to my mother.
“During that time, my mother was going to the hospital daily,” she said, at which point the 25-year-old broke down into tears.
She added: “Therefore I don’t know why the world acts in the way it does these days.
“God is my guide, I am a practicing Muslim woman. I am a Muslim Arabic woman.
“I have overcame this chapter and I hope to be stronger in the future and come back more motivated.”
Khelif has now filed a legal complaint against X over the online harassment she received online since becoming Olympic champion in Paris.
Due to being filed against the social media site, the lawsuit does not target any specific people, although did name Rowling and Musk among others.
“What we’re asking is that the prosecution investigates not only these people but whoever it feels necessary. If the case goes to court, they will stand trial,” Nabil Boudi, Khelif’s attorney, told Variety.
