WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump criticized two Olympic gold medalist boxers during a recent campaign rally in Pennsylvania, falsely identifying the female athletes as men.
While discussing his commitment to “keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump addressed the controversy surrounding the recently concluded Olympic Games, focusing on the misconceptions regarding the athletes’ gender.
Throughout his rallies, Trump has targeted transgender individuals, particularly transgender athletes, using language that LGBTQ+ advocates argue is misleading and damaging.
The two boxers, Imane Khelif from Algeria and Li Yu-ting from Taiwan, have faced significant scrutiny related to misconceptions about their gender, which emerged after the now-banned International Boxing Association disqualified them from world championships for allegedly failing an eligibility test.
During his remarks, Trump did not identify the athletes by name but stated, “in the Olympics, they had two transitioned.” He went on to assert, “They were men. They transitioned to women, and they were in the boxing.”
Despite being assigned female at birth, Khelif and Lin encountered intense debate around gender, sex, and sports after their disqualification by the International Boxing Association, which raised concerns over eligibility criteria for women’s competitions.
Trump has previously criticized the inclusion of Khelif in competitive events, reiterating his claim that Khelif is a man. On Saturday, he characterized both boxers as “crazy” and described their participation as “demeaning to women.”
