A former training opponent of Imane Khelif has waded into the controversy surrounding the Olympic champion.
Joana Nwamerue, a Bulgarian-Nigerian women’s boxer, alleged Khelif is a “man to me” with “male power and male techniques” that Nwamerue said she witnessed during a February training match, according to the Daily Mail.
Nwamerue then bizarrely alleged that Khelif has been “biologically altered” by living in the mountains.
Khelif won gold at the Olympics in Paris, but also had to deal with many questioning her gender.
“(Khelif) has some kind of internal issues. But he is a man. I will stay (by) my words until he/she does a test to prove to the world that he/she is a woman. But we all know that won’t happen,” Nwamerue told Reduxx.
“I think we played three, four sparring sessions. I have a record of everything. I can confirm that this is a man to me. Male power. Men’s techniques, everything.”
Nwamerue said she was told that Khelif had allegedly been “biologically altered” by living in the mountain ranges of Algeria.
“She is a woman and just lives high in the mountains with her relatives and parents and so there may be a change in her testosterone or chromosomes and the like.”
Khelif was born female and is not transgender. She was banned last year after the International Boxing Association carried out medical tests alleging said she had high levels of testosterone in her system.
Khelif was welcomed back to Algeria as a champion, but has been mocked by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
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