The Olympics ended in August, but some false claims have still not been dispelled: Olympic champion and boxer Imane Khelif can confirm this.

“Olympic boxer Imane Khelif fails gender test, stripped of all titles, banned for life and stripped of her $25 million prize money!” read a viral Facebook post shared on September 24th. Several other claims on Facebook copied the claim.

The post linked to an article that mistreated Khelif and claimed she was “banned for life after failing a gender test, with the World Boxing Organization (WBO)” officially declaring Khelif a man. It said the verdict resulted in Khelif being stripped of all medals and prize money.

But that claim is fabricated — and the post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation in its news feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot of Facebook post)

PolitiFact checked Nexis and Google news archives and found no credible news reports that Khelif had recently failed a gender test, had her title revoked, had been banned from boxing, or had her prize money withdrawn.

The World Boxing Organization, which manages professional boxing competitions, has not issued a statement supporting this claim. Khelif has competed primarily in amateur boxing, which is run by a separate organization, the International Boxing Association.

During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Khelif came under public scrutiny after widespread claims that she was transgender.

The claims followed the Russian-run International Boxing Federation barring Khelif from competing in the 2023 World Cup after she said she did not meet gender requirements to compete in women’s sports following a blood test. But the International Olympic Committee suspended the International Boxing Association in 2019 and withdrew recognition from the group entirely in 2023.

The International Olympic Committee’s boxing department confirmed that Khelif was eligible to compete in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics. An IOC statement called the International Boxing Association’s decision “sudden”, “arbitrary” and without “due process”.

Khelif was “born a woman, was registered as a woman, lived her life as a woman, boxed as a woman, has a female passport,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said Aug. 2. “This is not a transgender case.”

Following the controversy, neither the International Olympic Committee nor the International Boxing Association have made any statements regarding a lifetime ban, revocation of titles or return of prize money.

Khelif herself said after her Olympic victory: “I want to tell the whole world that I am a woman and that I will remain a woman,” according to NBC News. She has filed a criminal complaint in France for online harassment.

Given the close attention and increased coverage Khelif received during the Summer Games, she would certainly have made headlines from credible sources if she had been stripped of her titles and banned for life. There is none.

We rate this claim as false.