Olympic champion Imane Khelif graced the Milan Fashion Week in the Bottega Veneta Spring 2025 Ready-To-Wear show. She came fresh off her maiden boxing gold at the 2024 Paris Games, after an extended controversy over a gender row.
Khelif, 25, first came to the spotlight when Angela Carini left the ring after 46 seconds, claiming that the blow came from a biological male boxer. A gender row followed as Khelif's failed gender eligibility test from 2023 surfaced, which then kept her out of the World Championships.
Despite getting cleared by the International Olympic Committee to compete at the Games, she received backlash from several prominent names, including Elon Musk and JK Rowling. But Imane Khelif competed and won the Olympic gold in welterweight (66 kg), beating Yang Liu of China, silencing online abuse and false claims that she was 'a man'.
At the Milan Fashion Week in the Bottega Veneta Spring 2025 Ready-To-Wear show, she was seen wearing a golden oversized shirt and a pair of black trousers. In a video posted on an X handle, she posed with the American socialite and media icon, Kendall Jenner.
In another X post, she posed for the camera:
In a recent collaboration with Beauty Side, the Algerian's pictures went viral. She featured in a floral white shirt, hoop earrings, and subtle makeup.
Imane Khelif addressed Elon Musk's initiation of an alleged hate campaign against her
Before Imane Khelif became the first Algerian female gold medalist in boxing, she faced a campaign facilitated by the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. Following his controversial X comment, 'Absolutely' on former US swimmer, Riley Gaines' post, reading, '‘Men don’t belong in women’s sports’, the 25-year-old boxer filed a cyberbullying complaint against Musk.
In an exclusive with Clique, she held Musk accountable for leading the attack without knowing anything about her.
"‘I would say… you hate me but you don’t even know me. I don’t even know why you led this attack. You have been cruel to me, cruel to my family, to my mother. At that time, my mother was going to hospital every day," she said tearfully.
She added:
"I don’t understand the behaviour of people today. God is my guide, I am a practising Muslim woman. I am a Muslim Arabic woman and I got through this moment. I hope I will be even stronger in the future and come back even more motivated."
Khelif's father eventually confirmed his daughter's gender and took pride in his hard-working and brave child. Even Thomas Bach, the IOC president, clarified that there were never doubts regarding her gender.