PARIS — French prosecutors opened an investigation into an online harassment complaint made by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a torrent of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Summer Games, the Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday.
The athlete's lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a legal complaint Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor's office that combats online hate speech.
Boudi said the boxer was targeted by a ''misogynist, racist and sexist campaign'' as she won gold in the women's welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women's boxing.
The prosecutor's office said it had received the complaint and its Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime had opened an investigation on charges of ''cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin.''
Khelif was thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight in Paris, when Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out just seconds into the match, citing pain from opening punches.
Claims that Khelif was transgender or a man erupted online. The International Olympic Committee defended her and denounced those peddling misinformation. Khelif said that the spread of misconceptions about her ''harms human dignity.''
Among those who referred to Khelif as a man in critical online posts were Donald Trump and J. K. Rowling. Tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted a comment calling Khelif a man.
Khelif's legal complaint was filed against ''X,'' instead of a specific perpetrator, a common formulation under French law that leaves it up to investigators to determine which person or organization may have been at fault.
