“Boxer Imane Khelif wins gold, closing Olympics marked by criticism of her gender”

PARIS (AP) — Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal Friday at the Paris Olympics, the champion after a tumultuous run at the Games that saw her face intense criticism in the ring and online abuse from around the world over misconceptions about her being a woman.

Khelif defeated China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the women’s welterweight final, capping the best run of her boxing career with a victory at Roland Garros, where the crowd chanted her name, waved Algerian flags and cheered every time she threw a punch.

After her unanimous victory, Khelif jumped into the arms of her coaches, one of whom put her on his shoulders and carried her on a lap of honor, while she clenched her fists and grabbed an Algerian flag from the crowd.

“For eight years this was my dream and now I am an Olympic champion and a gold medalist,” Khelif said through an interpreter. Asked about the check, she told reporters: “That also gives my success a special touch because of those attacks.”

“We are at the Olympics to perform as athletes, and I hope we don’t see similar attacks in the future,” she said.

Fans have embraced Khelif in Paris even as she has faced an extraordinary amount of criticism from world leaders, major celebrities and others who questioned her fitness or falsely claimed she is a man. It has thrown her into a wider divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulation in sports.

It follows the decision by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association to disqualify Khelif and her Taiwanese colleague Li Yu-ting, who also competed twice at the Olympics, from last year’s world championships. They both reportedly failed an entrance test for the women’s competition. IBA officials refuse to answer basic questions about this.

“I am fully qualified to participate in this competition,” Khelif said Friday. “I am a woman like any other woman. I was born as a woman, I live as a woman and I am qualified.”

The International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step last year of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics after years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency. The IOC has called the arbitrary sex tests the sports governing body imposed on the two boxers irredeemably flawed.

The IOC has repeatedly affirmed the two boxers’ right to compete in Paris, with President Thomas Bach personally defending Khelif and Lin and calling the criticism “hate speech.”

Khelif noted that she has been competing in IBA competitions since 2018, but now “they hate me, and I don’t know why.”

“I sent them one message with this gold medal, and that is that my dignity and honor come before everything,” she said.

The IBA’s reputation has not stopped the international outrage over misconceptions surrounding the fighters, amplified by Russian disinformation networks. Nor has it slowed the achievements of two fighters who have performed at the highest levels of their careers while in the spotlight.

Khelif dominated in Paris at a level she had never achieved before, winning every round on every judge’s scorecard in each of her three fights in which she went the distance.

Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing. She is only the country’s second gold medalist, after Hocine Soltani (1996) who claimed the seventh gold medal in Algeria’s Olympic history.

While Khelif drew enthusiastic fans decked out in flags in Paris, she has also become a hero in her North African country, where many see the global criticism of Khelif as criticism of their country.

Khelif’s fight, dubbed “The Night of Destiny” in local newspapers, was projected onto screens set up in public squares in Algiers and other cities. In the town of Tiaret in Khelif’s home region, workers braved the scorching summer heat to paint a mural of Khelif on the gym where she learned to box.

“Imane has managed to turn the criticism and attacks on her femininity into fuel,” said Mustapha Bensaou of the Tiaret gym. “The slander has given her a boost. … It’s a bit of a blessing in disguise.”

Khelif won the first round against Yang on all five of the judges’ cards, despite showing slightly less aggression than earlier in the tournament. Khelif then knocked Yang back against the ropes with a combination early in the second round, though Yang responded with a flurry of punches and fought bravely.

Khelif won the second round and sailed through the third, performing a triumphant boxer’s shuffle in the final seconds of the match before the fighters embraced. When the verdict was announced, Khelif saluted and waved her arm gleefully.

At the medal ceremony, she grinned and waved to the crowd before kissing her gold medal. The four medalists — boxing gives two bronze — then posed for a podium selfie, clasping their hands and raising them together.

The gold medal fight was the culmination of Khelif’s nine-day run through an Olympic tournament that began in bizarre fashion. Khelif’s first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, abandoned their bout after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif’s punches.

An already steamy story suddenly drew commentary from the likes of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who criticized and made false speculation about men competing with women in sports. Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Khelif.

Khelif has never done so well in an international tournament as she has at these Olympics. When she was cast last week as some kind of unstoppable boxing machine by pundits and provocateurs who had never seen her fight before, opponents and teammates who knew her were shocked by the characterization.

Then her reputation as one of the best Olympic boxers in the world became a reality.

Lin will fight for a gold medal on Saturday on the final day of the Olympics, taking on Poland’s Julia Szeremeta with a chance to win Taiwan’s first boxing gold.