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Olympics 2024-'I'm a WOMAN': MAN Khelif Claims Gold in WOMENs' Boxing
‘I Am a WOMAN’: Imane Khelif Hits Back in Gender Row After Claiming Gold
'WOKE Olympics' Results in FURY With Imane Khelif Breezing to Victory Despite Gender Controversy
25-year-old beats China’s Yang Liu by unanimous decision
The Guardian 10 AUG 2024
After a fortnight surrounded by a gender-row controversy, Imane Khelif became an Olympic gold medallist for the first time as she defeated the world champion Yang Liu of China in the women’s 66kg category by unanimous decision.
The greatest victory of the 25-year-old’s career was sealed in jubilant scenes at Roland Garros as the Algerian diaspora showed up in numbers, filling out Court Philippe-Chatrier and raucously supporting her for every second of the gold medal bout. Khelif is Algeria’s first Olympic gold medallist in women’s boxing and their first boxer overall to win gold since 1996.
“As for whether I qualify or not, whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media,” Khelif said after her victory. “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I’m 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. [The detractors] are enemies of success, that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”
Khelif is one of two boxers – Lin Yu-ting fights in the 57kg final on Saturday – who has been subjected to a gender eligibility row following their bans from competing in the 2023 boxing world championships after both failed a gender eligibility test administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Before these events, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took the decision to strip the IBA of recognition as boxing’s governing body and expel it from the Olympics over a number of issues, including corruption, financial transparency and governance.
Three days after the Algerian *diaspora in France had rallied around Khelif in her semi-final battle, making their support clear after a difficult two weeks, they returned late on Friday even louder.
After the first three finals of the night had finished, some in the crowd came alive at the first mention of Khelif’s name. Chants of Insane! Insane! echoed around the stadium.
“My honour is intact now,” Khelif said. “But the attacks that I heard in social media were extremely bad and they are meaningless and they impact the dignity of people and I think that now people’s thinking has changed....-NO IT HASN'T
Imane Khelif: Boxing Boss Says Olympics is 'Destroying Womens Sports'
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