Imane Khelif refuses to give up on Olympics, hitting the gym hours after trans athletes were banned

By LUKE POWER, SPORTS REPORTER 10:31 27 Mar 2026, updated 11:20 27 Mar 2026

Imane Khelif is refusing to give up on the Olympics and has shared a video of an explosive training session on Instagram.

The Algerian is determined to compete at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 despite the International Olympic Committee's crackdown on transgender and DSD athletes. 

On Thursday the IOC clamped down on transgender DSD (Disorder of Sex Development) athletes by mandating sex tests for anybody wanting to compete in a female event. Athletes with DSD must prove that they do not benefit from increased testosterone levels. 

Khelif has a naturally high level of testosterone - though takes medication to reduce it - and was engulfed in a gender row at the 2024 Paris Olympics after failing a gender eligibility test with the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023.

The 26-year-old, who is open to taking a sex test, certainly made an impression with this latest workout video.

Khelif was filmed weightlifting, doing hand release push-ups, hitting the bike, working with dumbbells, and smashing out chin-ups in a varied workout.

Coach Karim Ya wrote with the post: 'Nothing is easy. Everything is deserved.

'Every workout counts. Every effort brings you closer to the battle.'

Khelif won welterweight gold at the last Olympics and appears to have every intention of competing at the next.

A fellow gender row boxer, Lin Yu-ting, who claimed the featherweight title in Paris, was recently cleared to return to World Boxing events after a sex test, casting doubt on the fairness of the controversy over her gender. 

Khelif received plenty of support in the comments section of coach Ya's post and has amassed 1.7 million followers on Instagram.

And returning to Algeria with the gold medal, Khelif was given a hero's welcome and said: 'I am fully qualified. I am a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I lived as a woman, I competed as a woman - there is no doubt.'

Khelif has not competed since sex tests were introduced by World Boxing last year, taking the fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to compete without being tested, for which a hearing is yet to be held. 

But the fighter is happy to take a sex test for the next Olympics, saying to CNN in February: 'Of course, I would accept doing anything I'm required to do to participate in competitions.

'They should protect women, but they need to pay attention that while protecting women, they shouldn't hurt other women.'

Last year, Trump signed an executive order entitled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports'. The president referred to Khelif as a 'male boxer' who had 'transitioned' and 'stole the women's gold medal' by competing in Paris.

The President doubled down on calling Khelif a 'male' during a speech to Republican lawmakers in January.

Trump has previously claimed that Khelif is transgender. Our current understanding is that that is incorrect. The boxer was, as far as we know, born female, but is believed to possess the SRY gene, which is associated with male sex chromosomes.

'I respect everyone, and I respect Trump because he's the president of the United States,' Khelif told L'Equipe. 'Trump cannot distort the truth. I'm not trans, I'm a girl.

'I was raised as a girl, I grew up as a girl, people in my village have always known me as a girl.'