Imane Khelif won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s boxing 66-kilogram (145-pound) division on Friday, beating China’s Yang Liu. The feat culminated with her atop her coach’s shoulders celebrating with arms in the air, and the packed house at Roland Garros stadium cheering her on.
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Though Khelif’s story ends in triumph, her Paris Olympics run has been mired by battles both in and out of the ring — the ones outside revolving around a dispute over her gender. The controversy was initially sparked after Khelif’s former opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, abandoned the match 46 seconds into its start following several blows to the face by the Algerian boxer.
Afterward, one post on social media wrongly claimed Khelif was transgender and assigned male at birth, which led to an online frenzy, with people debating whether or not Khelif should be allowed to box in the women’s category.
Khelif is a woman who is not transgender nor does she identify as intersex, according to GLAAD and InterACT and (as the Associated Press reported ) she was assigned female at birth. But the controversy sparked an online frenzy.
Prominent influencers like the controversial Logan Paul falsely claimed that Khelif was a man, and he took to X/Twitter to write, “This is the purest form of evil unfolding right before our eyes. A man was allowed to beat up a woman on a global stage, crushing her life’s dream while fighting for her deceased father. This delusion must end.”
Though Paul later retracted his statement, writing “OOPSIES” and admitting to spreading false information, other influential figures like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk were among the high-profile names condemning the Olympics for allowing Khelif to compete in the women’s boxing competition at the Paris 2024 games.
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Khalif recently took to SNTV, a sports video partner of the Associated Press, to say 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 in an interview that was originally conducted in Arabic. “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.”
According to NBC News , Khelif won in a unanimous decision. A large Algerian crowd at Roland-Garros Stadium cheered her on with chants of “allez Imane” and “1, 2, 3 Algérie!”
“I’m very happy, God made that (happen), that’s my dream!” Khelif said moments after the bout. “I want to thank all the people here,” she said, pointing into the stands, “and the people of Algeria to come support me, my coach and Team Algeria.”
All five judges had it 10-9 for Khelif in each round, the New York Times reported.
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