Algerian boxer Imane Khelif wins gold medal at Paris Olympics
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif had a message for the International Boxing Association after winning her gold medal bout at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Triumphant boxer Imane Khelif says she has responded to the “hate” of the International Boxing Association, with “a single message, a gold medal”.
Khelif, the boxer suspended at last year’s world championships by the IBA after a genetic DNA test the discredited organisation claims revealed male XY chromosomes, said the Paris Olympic victory, beating China’s world champion Liu Yang for the gold medal in the 66kg class, had restored “dignity and honour”.
Khelif had demolished the opposition throughout the Olympics, winning one bout in 46 seconds and the others with a emphatic clean sweep of judging points in one of the most bitter competitions in Olympic history.
While the Algerian’s win was celebrated long and hard inside Roland Garros by raucous Algerian supporters, outside of it feminists were appalled that the International Olympic Committee had applied a different criteria to what a woman is — saying a passport was sufficient — in order for Khelif to compete.
The International Olympic Committee has dismissed conducting what they say is “shameful and disgraceful sex testing” in its pursuit of an inclusive ideology, which has fractured the concept of women’s sport.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova tweeted: “Thanks for nothing IOC. Shame on you — this is a travesty. It’s not a gender row, BTW, it’s a SEX row.”
Khelif’s opponents had also protested the Olympic bosses’ move, indicating XX hand signals to indicate that unlike their opponent, they were women.
Khelif, however, said: “As for whether I qualify or not, or whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media. I am fully qualified to participate in this competition. I am a woman, I was born a woman and I competed as a woman. There is no doubt about that. There are enemies of success, this is what I call them of course that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
Later when asked why the IBA had implemented the ban, Khelif said: “They hate me and I don’t know why. I really don’t know why. I sent them a single message with this gold medal and I say my dignity and honour is above everything else.”
Khelif’s win came hours after a bewildered International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach claimed scientists didn’t know what a woman is — but he insisted he did and that the two boxers at the centre of the row “were women’’.
Bach rejected a suggestion the IOC was prioritising inclusion at the expense of fairness and safety for women, saying “this is a question of justice that women have the right to participate in women’s competition’’.
He said it “is not scientifically true any more” that the chromosomes XX or XY distinguish what a woman is.
Bach then insisted that “all the scientists cannot tell whether there is an advantage or not” in regards to having the male XY chromosomes, remarks the United Nations UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said “was very concerning” .
Alsalem said “the world has a pretty good idea of what women — and men for that matter — are”.
A leading sports scientist Ross Tucker, said Bach’s latest statement was “an incredibly impressive performance to act ignorant, confused and stupefied, while simultaneously lying through your teeth about the thing you sincerely pretend many people haven’t explained to you for the last six years. It’s as if a hall of mirrors came to life.”
Bach even attempted to throw shade on the DNA genetic testing conducted by the International Boxing Association, claiming it was a “defamation campaign by a not credible organisation with highly political interests”.
But none of that mattered during the final where Khelif’s long reach and powerful right hands has resulted in 17 consecutive victories, a performance the 25 year old credited to training in the United States.
“I think that the whole world knows the story of Imane Khelif. I am from a very small village in Algeria,’’ Khelif said.
“I was born and raised in a poor neighbourhood but my family was always proud of me and supported me in this sport. My message to the whole world is that they should commit to Olympic principles and avoid bullying … I hope that we will not see any similar attacks at future Olympics.
“My honour is intact now. But the attacks that I heard on social media were extremely bad and they are meaningless.”
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