XY Boxer Imane Khelif Beats Out Megastars As The Most-Googled Athlete Of 2024

Boxing is already a niche sport in today's day and age, but when it comes to Olympic boxing, we're talking about a sport that only a select few pay any attention to. The sport jumped into the spotlight in 2024, however, when Imane Khelif won a gold medal in the women's division during the Paris Games.

Khelif was deemed eligible to fight in the women's division despite failing a "series of DNA tests" that led to the Algerian being disqualified from The Women's World Boxing Championship in March 2023. The International Boxing Association (IBA) determined Khelif was "trying to fool their colleagues" while pretending to be a woman."

As Khelif cruised to a gold medal, the story and list of questions grew larger, so the world turned to Google searching for any sort of answers. As a result, Khelif was the most-Googled athlete of 2024.

Google released its ‘Year in Search’ data this week showing  Khelif topping the list above the likes of Mike Tyson, Lamine Yamal, Simone Biles, and Jake Paul, who rounded out the Top 5 most-Googled athletes of the year.

Algeria's Imane Khelif (in red) punches Italy's Angela Carini in the women's 66kg preliminaries round of 16 boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

Khelif quickly became the talk of the Paris Olympics after winning their first fight of the competition against Italian Anegal Carini, who withdrew from the match just 46 seconds in before admitting how painful the experience was.

"I got into the ring to fight," Carini said in Paris. "I didn't give up, but one punch hurt too much. And, so, I said ‘enough.'"

READ: Italian Boxer Ousted From Olympic Spotlight By XY Competitor Imane Khelif Proves She Got Cheated

From then, the search for more information about Khelif really took off, and it was later discovered that a former boxing coach revealed that Khelif was too dangerous to train against women during a pre-Olympics retreat.

Just as the dust was starting to settle and the sports world's attention began moving elsewhere, a medical report on Khelif was obtained by French journalist Djaffar Ait Auodia from June 2023. The report, which became public in early November, revealed that Khelif underwent an MRI where it was determined that the boxer did not have a uterus, but instead had internal testicles. A chromosomal test reportedly confirmed that Khelif has an XY karyotype and a hormone test revealed Khelif's level to be that typical of males.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stood firmly by its decision to include both Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting - who also won gold after failing gender tests in 2023 - throughout the Games in Paris.