PARIS — Algerian Imane Khelif won welterweight gold on Friday, dispatching China’s Yang Liu and overcoming more than a week of opponents wrongly questioning her gender.
Khelif won in a unanimous decision as a large Algerian crowd at Roland-Garros Stadium cheered her on with chants of « allez Imane » and « 1, 2, 3 Algérie! »
All five judges had it 10-9 for Khelif in each round.
After the win, a man in her corner hoisted the fighter on to his shoulders and took Khelif on a victory lap as she held an Algerian flag over her head.
Khelif and another boxer, featherweight Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei, have been fighting under a cloud in France after the Algerian’s opening victory over Angela Carini, who quit after 46 seconds.
The Italian’s rapid surrender brought to light 2023 allegations made by the Russian-led International Boxing Association which removed those two fighters from a competition in New Delhi last year.
Despite those false allegations from an isolated Russian boxing body, Khelif was backed by throngs of Algerian fans who filled much of Roland-Garros Stadium and have rallied to her side this week.
The IBA said it had conducted tests in 2022 and 2023 that raised doubts about the boxers’ gender because of their chromosomes.
The IBA has not released details of the testing. A hastily called press conference by the IBA in Paris on Monday shed little light on the allegation as body president Umar Kremlev answered many questions with rambling tirades against the Olympics which he kept comparing to the sin-filled biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Both the IOC, which has declared Khelif and Lin eligible due to genders on their passports, and USA Boxing have cut ties with the IBA, last year, before much of the sporting world came to know Khelif and Lin.
The IBA is financially supported by Russian state-owned energy corporation Gazprom.
Khelif and Lin are veteran fighters and well-known in the women’s boxing community.
Khelif’s father insists his daughter is clearly a woman, who he raised as a girl. Lin has long said she took up boxing as a little girl, in hopes of protecting her mom from domestic violence.
The went as high as the United Nationals earlier this week end diplimats from Russia and Algeria verbally sparred over the matter.
Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said men are fighting women in the Olympics which is “absolutely repellant.”
Senior Algerian diplomat Toufik Koudri counter-punched, saying Khelif was born a female, lived the life of a “full-fledged woman” and that there “isn’t a shred of doubt on that matter, except for those who have (a) vague political agenda.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
