A tabloid newspaper has used a picture of cisgender athlete Imane Khelif in an article about the proposed Olympics trans ban.

The Sun reported on Monday (10 November) that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was planning to implement a policy that would bar trans women from the Games. Sources have suggested a ban could come into effect in six to 12 months, under directives from IOC president Kirsty Coventry.

The proposals have faced criticism for the additional claim that athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD), which can include cisgender women, will also be banned from competitions.

The Sun’s article featured a picture of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who faced abuse at last year’s Paris Games over false claims that she was a transgender woman.

Sun Sport shared the article on Facebook with the words “Breaking: Transgender women set to be banned from all female Olympic events,” alongside a photo of Khelif grimacing.

Readers were quick to point out that, despite the accusations, Khelif is not a trans woman.

The claims began circulating last year after it came to light that Khelif had been disqualified from a Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) tournament after failing an eligibility criteria test.

The current headline for the article, which was updated almost three hours after publication, proclaims that the IOC’s ban could include “DSD athletes like Imane Khelif”. This is also based on nothing more than claims that Khelif is intersex.

The IOC questioned the validity of the IBA’s tests, eventually stripping the association of its world governing body status, citing integrity and governance issues.

Despite this, reporters Martin Lipton and Oli Gamp continued to claim Khelif was born with differences of sexual development, adding the line that she “has insisted she was born and raised as a girl”.

Even if Khelif was intersex, it would have nothing to do with her sex assigned at birth. You can be intersex and a cisgender woman.

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