Olympic boxer's cyberbullying lawsuit names Elon Musk, JK Rowling

A criminal complaint filed this week to French authorities alleging “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer and Olympic gold medalist whose gender identity was questioned at this year’s Paris Games, names influential figures including author J.K. Rowling and tech billionaire Elon Musk. 

Khelif’s attorney, Nabil Boudi, confirmed to Variety on Tuesday that Rowling and Musk are mentioned in the complaint, filed Friday in Paris. The lawsuit does not identify any specific defendants, however, which Boudi said will ensure the prosecution “has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,” including individuals who may have posted hateful messages under pseudonyms. 

Former President Trump will also be part of the investigation, he said. “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” Boudi said Tuesday. Boudi did not respond to The Hill’s requests for comment. 

Conservative pundits, media personalities and lawmakers ignited a firestorm earlier this month over Khelif’s gender identity following resurfaced reports that Khelif and another Olympic boxer, Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, failed to meet an unspecified gender eligibility requirement at last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

The tests were administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to expel last year over the governing body’s failure to implement certain ethical and governance reforms. 

The IOC has challenged the validity of gender tests given to Khelif, 25, and Lin, 28, neither of whom identify as transgender. Both athletes competed in the women’s category at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo with little to no controversy. 

Misinformation spread rapidly about Khelif’s gender on social media after her Olympic bout against Italy’s Angela Carini, which Carini abandoned after just 46 seconds. Carini later told reporters that she ended the fight because of severe pain in her nose. 

Rowling posted a photo of the match to the social platform X, writing that Khelif was “enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.” Musk, who owns the platform, shared a post from Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who frequently advocates against the inclusion of transgender athletes, that claimed Khelif is a transgender woman. 

Trump also seized on the backlash, and in an Aug. 1 post on Truth Social, his social media site, he used a video of the fight to bolster a campaign promise to “keep men out of women’s sports” if he is reelected in November. At a rally in Bozeman, Mont., on Friday, Trump repeated the false claim that Khelif is transgender, describing her as a “young woman who transitioned from a man into a boxer.”

In an interview with The Associated Press this month, Khelif said the tidal wave of hateful comments and misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity.” 

“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” Khelif told the AP in Arabic. “It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”