Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu recently came out in support of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and the gender eligibility controversy surrounding her at the Paris Olympics 2024. The actress questioned why Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps were also not banned from the Olympics since they too had a 'biological edge'.
She cited the example of her film Rashmi Rocket, in which Taapsee's character was a female athlete who was banned due to high level of testosterone. Drawing comparisons with the Imane Khelif row, the actress questioned, "Our argument in the film was that there are so many athletes who are born with an edge over others. Like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, all these people are also born with a certain biological edge over others. Why are they not banned? And why only someone who has a higher level of testosterone is banned?"
"If she has taken injections for this particular competition, then, of course, it should be illegal and she should be banned. But if she is not, then by something that is not in her control, you've banned her," she added.
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However, her comment did not go down well with netizens who slammed for forming uninformed opinions and called her comment 'brain dead'. They pointed out that the controversy around Khelif erupted because she is a biologically male boxer who participated and won gold in the women's category.
"Equating this with legends like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps is not just absurd—it's a direct insult to women athletes who compete fairly," a user commented, while another wrote, "Because they did not fight in women boxing pretending to be women."
"Sounds like she doesn’t even know the current events," an X user wrote, and another explained, "Taapsee, seriously? Equating Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps to Khelif's situation is like comparing apples to rocket ships! Khelif's debate is about gender eligibility, not doping or cheating in the traditional sense."
Taapsee is yet to react to the criticism.
On the work front, Taapsee recently had two big releases -- Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba on OTT and Khel Khel Mein in theatres. While the former received rave reviews from the audience, the latter, which alos starred Akshay Kumar, Ammy Virk, Vaani Kapoor, Fardeen Khan and others failed to perform at the box office.
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