Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whose Olympics run has been overshadowed by a controversy over her gender, is getting closer to winning gold in Paris. On Tuesday, Khelif won over her semi final bout in the women’s 66kg competition against Thai boxer Janjaem Suwannapheng, taking her through to the final on Aug. 9.
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Khelif, who broke down in tears after winning the quarter-final boxing match against Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori last Saturday, was once again welcomed in the ring by loud cheers from a hugely supportive crowd and numerous Algerian flags being waved. After the win, she jumped for joy.
The Algerian boxed opened up yesterday in an interview with SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, about how she’s felt about the online bullying over claims that she shouldn’t be competing in the women’s boxing competition.
The gender eligibility row broke out after following her victory over Italy’s Angela Carini in a bout that lasted less than a minute and alluded to the fact that she was disqualified at last year’s Women’s World Championships, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu‑ting, after two separate tests revealed that they both had elevated levels of testosterone in their systems. Some prominent figures such as J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk also fueled the controversy on social media, accusing her of competing in the wrong gender category.
In the SNTV interview which was conducted in Arabic, Khelif claimed that her family was worried about her. “God willing, this crisis will culminate in a gold medal, and that would be the best response,” she said. “I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects.”
Khelif said bullying “can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.” She also thanked the Olympic Committee for doing her “justice.”
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Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Commitee, has indeed had her back. In a press briefing hours before Khelif’s quater-final bout, he said Khelif was entitled to compete in the women’s boxing competition because she was born and raised as a woman, has competed as such in the past, and is registered as a woman on her passport. Bach suggested the controversy stemmed from a “politically motivated cultural war” and denounced the “hate speech with this aggression and abuse” spreading on social media and the way it’s “fueled by this agenda is totally unacceptable.”
The International Boxing Association reacted a couple days later with a press conference held in Paris with managing director Chris Roberts and Ioannis Filippatos, the former head of the IBA’s medical committee who both reiterated claims that tests had been conducted on Khelif and Yu‑ting in Istanbul and India and had found that both boxers had XY chromosomes and had been given the opportunity to appeal the findings to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Roberts said Khelif appealed the decision but then withdrew.
Bach has suggested the row served the agenda of the International Boxing Association, which has been banned from the Olympics since June 2023 due to its ties to the Kremlin, management by presidents from Uzbekistan and Russia, as well as the fact that it’s backed by Russian state energy firm Gazprom.
“What we have seen from the Russian side and in particular from the International Federation, from which we had to withdraw their recognition for many reasons that they have undertaken way before these games with a defamation campaign against France, against the games against the against the IOC,” said Bach.
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