Tuberville, Britt call Olympic boxer a man, link controversy to Kamala Harris ‘attacks on Title IX’

Alabama U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been one of several voices on social media calling a female Algerian boxer a man following an Olympic boxing match Thursday in the Paris games.

On his two X accounts, Tuberville criticized Olympic officials for allowing Algerian Imane Khelif to participate in the games.

Khelif won a match against Italy’s Angela Carini, after Carini quit 46 seconds into the match. Carini stopped the fight after only a few punches were exchanged, according to NBC News.

In another post, Tuberville tied to the controversy to the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt also weighed in, saying that “this type of heartbreak for female athletes—this unfairness, this risk of injury—is exactly what the Biden-Harris attacks on Title IX would cause across American high schools, colleges, and universities.”

Carini avoided shaking Khelif’s hand and then fell to the floor in tears. Carini, 25, could be heard telling her coach, “It’s not right, it’s not right,” according to The Independent.

Khelif is next scheduled to fight on Saturday.

Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, failed to meet gender eligibility tests at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year.

That competition is regulated by the International Boxing Association, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The IBA said the specifics of the tests were confidential, but IBA president Umar Kremlev alleged to Russian news agency TASS last year Khelif had XY chromosomes—a pair of chromosomes typically possessed by men, according to Forbes.

Khelif appealed and called her disqualification last year a “big conspiracy.” Khelif also competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as a female.

Neither Khelif or Lin identify as transgender or intersex, meaning a person biologically with both male and female characteristics.

Mark Adams, the International Olympic Committee’s chief spokesman, was quoted in the New York Times that Khelif is not a transgender athlete, saying everyone competing in the Olympics’ women’s category has complied with competition eligibility rules.

In a statement, the IOC said that “two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA.”

Tuberville and Britt not alone in criticizing the match. Alabama U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), made a similar statement on X:

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, X and Tesla owner Elon Musk, and others criticized the fight.

Former President Donald Trump, on his Truth Social account, shared video of the fight with the words: “I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS!”