The Boston Globe apologized for a headline that said Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif was transgender ― as controversy swirled around unsubstantiated claims that she is a man.
“Transgender boxer advances,” the newspaper headline read on Friday, referring to her first-round win over Italy’s Angela Carini.
Khelif has since clinched a medal in the Paris Games, but accusations that she was born a man have generated online hate toward her.
She was born a woman and has fought as a woman for years, including the previous Olympics. But an unspecified “gender eligibility test” conducted by a suspect oversight organization led to her being disqualified from the 2023 world championships.
The headline that the Globe wrote for her first Olympics bout in Paris appeared on top of an Associated Press story by Greg Beacham that properly identified Khelif as a woman.
“A significant error was made in a headline on a story … about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif incorrectly describing her as transgender. She is not. Additionally, our initial correction of this error neglected to note that she was born female,” the Globe wrote in its correction on Saturday. “We recognize the magnitude of this mistake and have corrected it. This editing lapse is regrettable and unacceptable and we apologize to Khelif, to Associated Press writer Greg Beacham, and to you, our readers.
Noting Khelif and a Taiwanese boxer facing the same scrutiny, IOC President Thomas Bach said previously:
“We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”
