Leo Varadkar, the former Taoiseach of Ireland and current Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, issued an emphatic message of support for boxer Imane Khelif after her sex came under scrutiny during the Paris Olympics.
Khelif, who ultimately won Gold in the Women's Welterweight event, has launched a lawsuit in Paris after she was accused of being subject to what her lawyer called a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” during her Olympic run.
“Fair play to Imane Khelif,” Varadkar said on Instagram on Wednesday, August 14, sharing a screenshot of a post on X that said JK Rowling and Elon Musk had been named in Khelif's lawsuit.
“I hope she has financial support for her law suit. I’d be happy to make a donation," the former Taoiseach said.
“She was born a girl, almost certainly assigned that gender by the doctor or midwife based on her physical characteristics. She was raised as a woman by her family and is accepted as such by her community.
"Even if she wanted to identify as a transman or intersex (which she doesn’t) that’s not an option for her in a conservative, religious, traditional country like Algeria.
“This is the World they want us all to live in and still they attacked her.
“Bunch of bullies looking for a soft target.”
Varadkar, who announced that he was resigning as Taoiseach back in March, publicly confirmed in 2015 that he is gay. He has been in a relationship with his partner Dr. Matthew Barrett for a number of years.
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In her first bout at the Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's opponent Angela Carini, from Italy, pulled out less than a minute into their fight, later claiming she had "never been hit with such a powerful punch.”
The Italian boxer said her exit wasn't premeditated and that all the "controversy" made her "sad."
“I’m sorry for my opponent, too," Carini said, according to the Associated Press. "If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
The incident fueled a social media firestorm about Khelif's sex, with many calling her a man and or transgender.
The speculation was intensified by the fact that Khelif and another boxer had been disqualified from the International Boxing Association's (IBA's) Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2023 after "results from two independent laboratories in two different countries ... indicate that the athletes do not meet one of the eligibility criteria to continue competing at the Championships."
This IBA disqualification came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended its recognition of the IBA (then the AIBA) in 2019, and later decided in 2022 that the boxing qualifying events and competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 would not be run under the authority of the IBA.
It also came after Khelif competed in women's competitions throughout her career, including at the 2020 / 2021 Tokyo Olympics where she lost to Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the lightweight quarterfinals.
Responding to the speculation surrounding Khelif, the IOC said on August 1: "The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years."
The IOC added that it was "saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving."
The following day, Mark Adams, spokesman for the IOC, further said: "The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.
"This is not a transgender case.
"I know you're not saying that, but there has been some confusion that somehow it's a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case scientifically. On that there is consensus.
"Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman."
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office (National Center for the Fight Against Online Hatred) has now confirmed to US outlet Variety that it received the complaint filed by Khelif and announced that an investigation had been launched.
The Prosecutor's Office, Variety reported, said the investigation would be into counts of "cyber harassment due to gender, public insult because of gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insult because of origin.”
The lawsuit was filed against social media platform X and names its owner Elon Musk, as well as author JK Rowling, in it.
Khelif's lawyer told Variety that Donald Trump would also be part of the investigation. “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”
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