Imane Khelif defeated Yang Liu of China 5:0 in the final of the women’s welterweight division following several days of intense scrutiny and online abuse.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has won a gold medal Friday at the , emerging as a champion from a tumultuous run at the Games where she from around the world over misconceptions about her womanhood.
Khelif beat Yang Liu of China 5:0 in the final of the women’s welterweight division, wrapping up the best series of fights of her boxing career with a victory at Roland Garros.
Cheering crowds embraced Khelif in Paris — draping themselves in Algerian flags and chanting her name — even as she faced an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who have questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she was a man. It has thrust her into a larger divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sports.
Khelif told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, last weekend that the wave of hateful scrutiny she has received and she called for an end to bullying athletes. She also said a gold medal would be “the best response” to the backlash against her.
The scrunity stems from the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association’s decision to disqualify Khelif and fellow two-time Olympian Li Yu-ting of Taiwan from last year’s world championships, claiming both failed a murky eligibility test for women’s competition.
The International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step last year of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics following years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency. The IOC has called the arbitrary sex tests that the sport’s governing body imposed on the two boxers irretrievably flawed.
