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PARIS – Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won gold on Friday at the Paris Olympics, emerging as a champion from a troubled career at the Games where she endured intense scrutiny in the ring and online abuse from around the world over misconceptions about her femininity.
Khalif defeated China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the women’s welterweight final, capping off 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, Khalif jumped into the arms of her coaches, one of whom lifted her onto his shoulders and carried her in a victory lap as she waved her fists and snatched the Algerian flag from the crowd.
“This has been my dream for eight years, and now I am an Olympic champion and a gold medalist,” Khalif said through a translator. Asked about the scrutiny, she told reporters: “It gives my success a special taste also because of these attacks.
“We are at the Olympics to perform, and I hope we will not see any similar attacks in future Olympics.”
Fans have embraced Khalif in Paris even as she has faced an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, celebrities and others who have questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she is a man. That has pushed her into a wider divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sport.
This comes after the Russian-dominated International Boxing Federation (AIBA) disqualified Khalif and fellow two-time Olympic champion Li Yu-ting of Taiwan from last year’s world championships, claiming they failed an eligibility test for women’s competition, which AIBA officials refused to answer basic questions about.
“I am fully qualified to participate in this competition. I am a woman like any other woman. I was born as a woman, I live as a woman and I am qualified,” Khalif said on Friday.
The International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step last year of permanently banning the International Boxing Federation from the Olympics after years of concerns about its governance, competitive integrity and financial transparency. The IOC called the sport’s governing body’s arbitrary sex testing of boxers “irredeemably flawed.”
The IOC has repeatedly affirmed the boxers’ right to compete in Paris, with its president Thomas Bach personally defending Khalif and Lin while describing the criticism as “hate speech”.
Khalif said she has been competing in IBF competitions since 2018, but now “she hates me, and I don’t know why.”
“I sent them one message with this gold medal, which is that my dignity and honor are above all else,” she added.
The AIBA’s reputation has not stopped the international outcry over misconceptions about fighters, amplified by Russian disinformation networks, nor has it slowed the careers of two boxers who have performed at the highest levels of their careers in the public eye.
Khalif was dominant in Paris on a level she had never reached before: she won every round on every judges’ scorecards in each of her three fights that went the distance.
Khalif’s gold medal is the first for Algeria in women’s boxing. She is the second Algerian player to win a gold medal in boxing after Hocine Soltani (1996), while she won the seventh gold medal in Algeria’s Olympic history.
While Khalifa attracted adoring, flag-draped fans in Paris, she also became a hero in her native North Africa, where many saw the world’s dissection of Khalifa as a criticism of their nation.
Khelif’s fight, dubbed “The Night of Destiny” by local newspapers, was shown on screens set up in public squares across Algiers and other cities. In Tiaret, Khelif’s hometown, workers braved the scorching summer heat to paint a mural of Khelif on the gym where she learned to box.
“Iman has managed to turn the criticism and attacks on her femininity into fuel. The slander has given her a morale boost… It’s a blessing in disguise,” said Mustapha Bensaoui of the gym in Tiaret.
Khalif won the first round against Yang on all five judges’ cards despite showing less aggression than earlier in the tournament. Khalif then dropped Yang back to the ropes with a flurry of strikes early in the second round, though Yang responded with a series of strikes and fought back bravely.
Khalif won the second round and made it to the third round with ease, delivering a winning boxing move in the closing seconds of the match before the two boxers embraced each other. When the verdict was announced, Khalif saluted and raised her arm in joy.
During the medal ceremony, she smiled and waved to the crowd before accepting her gold medal. Then the four medalists – boxing is awarded two bronze medals – posed for a selfie on the podium, clasping their hands together and raising them.
The gold medal match was the culmination of nine days of competition for Khalif at an Olympic tournament that began strangely. His first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, walked out of the match after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khalif’s punches.
The story, which was already circulating, drew comments from the likes of former US President Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who criticized and falsely speculated about men competing with women in sports. Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Khalifa.
Khalifa has never performed as well in any other international tournament as she has at these Olympics. When commentators and pundits who had never seen her fight described her as an unstoppable boxing machine last week, her opponents and teammates who knew her were shocked.
She then lived up to the notion that she was one of the best Olympic boxers in the world.
Lin competes for gold in Saturday’s Olympic final. She will compete with Poland’s Julia Szeremta for a chance to win Taiwan’s first gold medal in boxing.
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