Imane Khelif won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris in August. She had no problems defeating Angela Carini, who gave up the fight after 46 seconds, or Liu Yang in the final. Already during the event itself, huge controversies arose around the athlete, who was excluded from the World Championships in India last year. According to the organizers (IBA boxing federation), she allegedly had too high testosterone levels, and DNA tests apparently showed the presence of male XY chromosomes.
Imane Khelif the most popular athlete of 2024. Statistics don't lie
Some time ago, Le Correspondant revealed that it had obtained medical tests confirming that Imane Khelif is not a woman. Doctors allegedly found a “genetic anomaly leading to metabolic dysfunction of testosterone and preventing the development of sexual organs”, and this anomaly mainly affects boys. Enraged, Khelif filed a lawsuit against the website, and the Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) also issued a special statement.
It is no wonder that the boxer has gained enormous popularity. There was also a lot of talk about a verbal conflict with multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who was allegedly “cruel towards her family, and because of him Khelif's mother was even hospitalized.”. As it turns out, all this translated into Google search results. It was revealed in the Google Trends report that the name of the athlete was searched for more often than those of Lamine Yamal or Mike Tyson.
Here is a list of the most frequently searched players on the Google platform in 2024:
- 1. Imane Khelif – Algeria, boxing
- 2. Mike Tyson – USA, boxing
- 3. Lamine Yamal – Spain, football
- 4. Simone Biles – USA, gymnastics
- 5. Jake Paul – USA, boxing
However, it did not end there, as the SportsPro portal revealed that the most frequently searched team was the New York Yankees, which overtook the Los Angeles Dodges. Both teams compete every day in Major League Baseball (MLB). Third place was taken by Leo Messi's Inter Miami team, while the next positions were taken by last season's sensation Bayer Leverkusen and NBA champion Boston Celtics.
It was also added that the most frequently searched event in the browser was Copa America, which overtook Euro 2024. The next positions were taken by the Cricket World Cup and the competition in this discipline between India and England. The Olympic Games in Paris were surprisingly low, losing even to the match between India and Bangladesh (also the cricket competition).
Football wasn't very interesting for fans in 2024. This can be concluded from the fact that the leader in the list of the most frequently searched athletes in England was darts player Luke Littler. Jude Bellingham was only fourth.