The only Australian boxer to beat Algerian Imane Khelif has a message for her detractors

The only Australian boxer to beat Algerian gold medallist Imane Khelif since her 2018 debut has called for those debating the controversy about her inclusion in the women’s competition to “question the information that’s in front of them”.

Anja Stridsman, a gold medallist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, took on the Algerian boxer in 2019 – and won. Amid heated controversy about whether Khelif should have been allowed to be part of the women’s competition, Stridsman expressed sadness that “the human aspect” of the debate had been ignored.

Australian boxer Anja Stridsman fought the Algerian in 2019.

When Stridsman fought the Algerian in 2019, she remembers being unimpressed by her work.

“When I fought her, she seemed kind of angry. There are people who come in the ring and connect with that part of themselves.”

But Khelif, now 25, went on to win gold in the women’s 66kg category this week, adding further fuel to the debate about her inclusion in the sport. Earlier, Italian Angela Carini had quit just 46 seconds into her bout with Khelif, saying she had never been hit harder.

“Some people used it to fuel hatred towards trans people, despite Imane not being trans, that we know of. I think that’s very worrying,” Stridsman said from her home in Sweden.

After that incident, Stridsman said the debate took an ugly turn.

“There was so much hate and outrage towards Imane, and everyone was just believing that she was a man, which is easy to believe because she does present very masculine.

“Some people are using it as a bit of an agenda. It was spiralling dangerously. Everyone kept sharing this information, but no one knew what the truth of it was.

“This talk would affect her mentally. Even if she is super happy about winning this, we don’t know what she says to herself in her head, whether she cries when she goes to sleep because of what people have said … We don’t really stop to think about those things because the human aspect is taken out of things.

“Maybe we are judging her based on what we want to believe. Because at the end of the day, we want to … feel a bit outraged. There’s nothing like a scandal in someone’s yard.”

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