Imane Khelif’s medal win at Paris Olympics divides opinion amid gender row

Algeria’s controversial boxer Imane Khelif secured a medal on Saturday at the 2024 Paris Olympics following a win over Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori via unanimous decision in the women’s 66 kg category quarter-finals. Khelif has been embroiled in a huge gender controversy after she was one of the two boxers who gained entry into the Paris Olympics despite failing a gender eligibility test last year.

Controversy erupted on Thursday after Khelif outpunched her Italian opponent Angela Carini in 46 seconds in a last 16 bout, with the latter eventually quitting from the bout after a few violent blows. On Saturday, Khelif got the better of Hamori with a 5-0 scoreline and by reaching the semi-finals, the Algerian is assured of at least a bronze medal.

The Hungarian boxing federation had planned to raise an appeal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the match-up, but the bout between Khelif and Hamori went ahead.

Khelif’s win over the Hungarian boxer has divided opinions among the sporting fraternity. Here are a few reactions:

Imane Khelif, the Algerian man who said he was a woman, then failed gender testing, was allowed to compete in women’s boxing anyway. He beat up enough women to now qualify for a medal.

At a Paris Games that has championed inclusion and seen other outcry over an opening ceremony performance featuring drag queens, LGBTQ+ groups say the hateful comments could pose dangers to their community and female athletes.

Khelif’s win was emotional — she went to the center of the ring, waved to her fans, knelt and slammed her palm on the canvas, her a smile turning to tears. She left the ring to hug her coaches while her fans roared, weeping during their embrace and as she walked out.

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IOC President Thomas Bach on Saturday defended Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan. Khelif and Lin were disqualified in the middle of last year’s world championships by the IBA, the former governing body of Olympic boxing after what it claimed were failed eligibility tests.

Both had competed in IBA events for several years without problems, and the Russian-dominated body — which has faced years of clashes with the IOC over judging scandals, leadership decisions and financial issues — has refused to provide any information about the tests, underscoring its lack of transparency in nearly every aspect of its dealings, particularly in recent years.

“Let’s be very clear here: We are talking about women’s boxing,” Bach said on Saturday. “We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”

The IBA, which is led by an acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, disqualified Khelif last year but has not released more details on the tests, calling the process confidential. The board faced the unprecedented punishment of being banned from Olympic participation in 2019 following years of conflict with the IOC.

“What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman,” Bach added. “And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific-based new definition of who is a woman, and how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman?

“If they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen,” Bach added. “We are ready to look into it, but we will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war.”

On Saturday, Khelif fought aggressively from the opening bell, snapping a crisp left jab while the fighters circled. Her fans chanted her first name repeatedly midway through the opening round, and she bounded forward to throw a combination.

The exhausted fighters had a halfhearted hug after the bell, but they touched fists and exchanged smiles right before the verdict was announced. They touched hands again when Khelif held down the ropes to allow Hamori to leave the ring in a traditional boxing gesture of sportsmanship.

Khelif, who had failed to medal at the Tokyo Games held in 2021, will face Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the 66-kg semifinals on Tuesday at Roland Garros. Suwannpheng, a silver medalist at last year’s world championships, upset defending Olympic champion Busenaz Surmeneli a few minutes before Khelif’s victory.

As for Lin, also a two-time Olympian, she would clinch her first medal Sunday if she beats Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria. Lin won her opening bout Friday comfortably over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova.

Amid the scrutiny, both Khelif and Lin have received only cheers from the crowds at North Paris Arena. “What is going on in this context in the social media, with all this hate speech, with all this aggression and abuse, and fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable,” Bach said.

The reduced field at the Paris Olympics boxing tournament — which has the fewest number of total boxers since 1956 — means that many fighters can clinch medals with just two victories. Boxing awards two bronze medals in each weight class, which means every semi-finalist wins a medal.

The Olympic sport reached gender parity for the first time in Paris, inviting 124 men and 124 women just 12 years after women’s boxing made its Olympic debut.

With inputs from The Associated Press