Escalation of Narratives About Transgender Athletes at Paris Olympics

Online discourse about transgender athletes escalated at the Paris Olympics. It began with allegations around female soccer players and intensified with the incident involving Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif, who has faced unsubstantiated questions about her gender.

According to PeakMetrics narrative intelligence, the British media played a key role in the acceleration of this online discourse. Priming the discussion, The Daily Mail published an article as the Games officially opened on July 26th, preemptively addressing the question of whether there were any trans athletes competing at the Olympics. PeakMetrics found that the news outlets connected to the most number of anti-trans narratives at the Olympics were: Telegraph (UK), Daily Mail (UK), Fox News (US), and Breitbart (US). 

Social media posts and news stories mentioning trans people and the Olympics were kicked into gear by the broadcast of the opening ceremonies on July 26th — which featured some performers in drag. The number of posts per hour on X (Twitter) about keywords like transgender athletes, gender eligibility, and sex testing at the Olympics rose to ~3800 posts amid the opening ceremonies on June 26th. The number of posts rose higher still on July 27th — reaching a peak of ~4,000 posts per hour. 

The online discourse was stirred again by the online commentary in news and social media following Australia’s near defeat to Zambia in women’s soccer. A slew of new stories were published on July 29-30th, many from the British press, on the gender eligibility (Independent) of the two female boxers (The Guardian), Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting, and the Zambian soccer players (Telegraph). The number of posts on July 30th peaked at ~3,000 posts per hour. 

Imane Khelif - Reaction

On July 31st, the number of posts on this subject (not even including posts naming Khelif specifically) began to ramp up in the lead-up to her boxing match with Italian Angela Carini on August 1st. There was a sustained level of posts on X throughout the day on July 31st, hovering around ~2,000 posts per hour.

Articles about Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting repeatedly cited their “previously failed sex eligibility tests” before the IOC decision to allow them to compete at the Olympics. As the IOC pointed out in their post to X on August 1st, this previous “failed” test was an “arbitrary decision” by the International Boxing Association that did not follow protocol and was not in line with the established IOC protocol. Notably, the President of the IBA is Umar Kremlev — a Russian national awarded Russian state honors. Also notable, the IBA’s lone sponsor is Russian energy company Gazprom. Russian outlets, including RT, went on to amplify coverage around the Imane Khelif controversy following the match. The Russian government and Russian-backed media have sought to denigrate the Olympics, as Russian athletes continue to be prohibited from competing under their national flag following the exposure of Russia’s state-sponsored doping program. 

The number of posts on X (Twitter) about transgender athletes (Khelif is a cis woman) and sex eligibility for the Olympics exploded in the wake of Imane Khalif’s boxing match against Cardini. Posts peaked around ~72,000 posts for two consecutive hours in the afternoon on August 1st. 

The online discussion did not return to even the baseline of the previous levels of discussion earlier in the Games on August 2nd. Instead, the volume of X posts remained very high on Friday — peaking at ~20,000 posts per hour. 

British author J.K. Rowling, an prolific critic of transgender rights, was one of the first posts of the day on X at 8:10 am ET on August 1st — joining the discourse around Imane Khelif hours before many American commentators — including Charlie Kirk (10:30 am ET) and J.D. Vance (2:57 pm ET) — joined the discussion.

Imane Khelif - Target of Activists Before Match

Rather than an organic reaction to the live broadcast of Khelif’s fight and quick withdrawal from Carini, PeakMetrics found indication that activist anti-trans networks began targeting Khelif in the days leading up to the opening ceremonies. 

Coverage of Imane Khelif in June and early July made no comment on her gender or sex. Only July 9th, an Italian newspaper Ansa even published a story on Khelif noting her role as a UNICEF ambassador and breaking stereotypes for girls in Algeria, making no note of the “failed sex eligibility test” from the International Boxing Association-run World Championships cited in the current uproar. Other Italian news outlets continued to cover Khelif in the run-up to the games — with no articles noting any suspicion or controversy around her sex eligibility. 

PeakMetrics found the earliest reference to Khelif’s testosterone levels — citing the IBA test — came on July 26th from Italian site OA Sport. 

PeakMetrics also found a post on X (Twitter) from July 27th questioning Khelif’s gender. Notably, this post followed the controversy around trans performers at the opening ceremonies the previous day, but before Khelif’s bout with Cardini. The post was from an individual who appears to be associated with a broader anti-trans movement. This is that user’s Twitter banner: 

User @GracieLouBLR reposted an original post from March 2023 from @icons_women — an organization that describes itself as defending women’s sports against men and funding lawsuits for female athletes against the NCAA. The post uses similar language to attacks on Khelif at the Olympics, accusing her of “pummeling” a female boxer. This user posts prolifically about the perceived threat of trans and gender non-conforming athletes in women’s sports (IOC officials have repeatedly said Khelif is cis woman identified female at birth).  This user went on to post hundreds of times about Khelif and other Olympic athletes, indicating clear campaign from these activists targeting Khelif before her match with Cariini. 

Notably, posts from this user predated the article on Khelif’s elibility from The Daily Mail , Breitbart, The Guardian and The Telegraph on July 29th.

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