‘They hate me and I don’t know why’: Khelif wins gold, opens up on gender furore

It became the unlikeliest source of intrigue and attention at the Paris Games: an unknown boxer from Algeria in the women’s 66kg category.

In the space of 46 seconds on Thursday afternoon last week, following the stunning withdrawal of Italian Angela Carini from her bout with Algerian Imane Khelif, Paris became the epicentre of a culture war over gender and fairness in sport.

Imane Khelif is carried out of the ring by her coaching staff after winning the gold medal fight.Credit: Eddie Jim

Eight days later, having survived a public interrogation into the most private of matters, Khelif left the Roland Garros arena with a gold medal around her neck.

This one they can’t take from her – unlike the one which she was denied in New Delhi at the world championships when disqualified for failing a gender eligibility test just hours before the gold medal bout against the same opponent she took the ring with in Paris.

Khelif becomes her country’s first Olympic gold medallist in 12 years and only the seventh in history, defeating China’s Yang Liu with a unanimous result in front of a heavily Algerian-flavoured crowd to claim the most controversial medal of these Games.

“Whether I qualify or not, or whether I’m a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media,” Khelif said in the press conference when asked about the furore over her eligibility.

“I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I am a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I lived a woman, I competed as a woman. There’s no doubt about that. There are enemies of success – this is what I call them. That also gives my success a special test because of these attacks.”

Banished by the International Boxing Association (IBA), whose two gender tests over the past two years allegedly revealed male chromosomes in her DNA, the Algerian was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee, which disregarded the IBA’s findings as “flawed” and “illegitimate”.

The IBA, in an attempt to bring credibility to its findings and justify its actions against Khelif, called a press conference in Paris during the week that became the butt of jokes among those in the room, such was the amateur nature in which it was conducted.

Khelif finally broke her silence about the IBA following her victory.

Khelif kisses the gold medal for the women’s 66kg boxing.Credit: Eddie Jim

“My honour is intact now, but the attacks I heard on social media were extremely bad – but they are meaningless,” Khelif said.

“They impact the dignity of people and I think now people’s thinking has changed. As for the IBA, since 2018 I’ve been boxing under the umbrella of the IBA. They know me very well, they know what I am capable and they know how I have developed over the years.

“Now they are not recognised any more. They hate me. They hate me and I don’t know why. I really don’t know why. I’ve sent them a single message with this gold medal, telling them my dignity and my honour is above everything else.”

Over the past week the media has swarmed to Khelif’s post-bout interview opportunities in scenes that resembled something you would expect from the selfie-seeking posse of reporters that have flocked to LeBron James, Steph Curry and the United States men’s basketball team.

The Algerian fans celebrating Khelif’s win.Credit: Eddie Jim

At the same venue where Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic created history when he won that elusive gold medal against Carlos Alcaraz just four days earlier, Khelif etched her name into the history books.

“I’m very happy. For eight years, this has been my dream, and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medallist,” Khelif said after a raucous crowd cheered her name as she left Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“I’ve worked for eight years, no sleep, eight years tired. Now I’m Olympic champion.

Khelif embraces her coaching staff after the win.Credit: Eddie Jim

“I want to thank all of the people in Algeria. “I am very happy for my performance. I am a strong woman.”

The debate over whether she and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting should have been allowed to compete at the Olympics will rage on long after the flames burn out in Paris.

It could be one of the last Olympic medals ever won in boxing, given the IOC’s threat to remove the sport – one of the oldest in the Games’ history – from the schedule in Los Angeles in 2028 if it doesn’t find a governing body with the governance and compliance it deems necessary to oversee the sport’s running.

If it is the last, no one will be forgetting it in a hurry.

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