Olympic champion Imane Khelif has been going through hell since the start of the Paris Olympics.
The Algerian boxer won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, emerging a champion from a tumultuous run at the Games, where she endured intense scrutiny in the ring and online abuse 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.
After her unanimous win, she has had to endure nonstop claims of her possibly being a man.
The entire ordeal stemmed from the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association’s decision to disqualify Khelif and fellow two-time Olympian Li Yu-ting of Taiwan from the 2023 world championships, claiming both failed an eligibility test for women’s competition that IBA officials have declined to answer basic questions about.
After years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness, and financial transparency, the International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics.
Since then, conversations about the safety of women in sports, particularly in combat sports, have become much more commonplace, with IBA president Umar Kremlev going as far as to demand that Imane Khelif return her gold medal.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral Boxing stories via Google! Follow Us
These conversations led to the IOC recently announcing a ban on transgender athletes and those with a difference in sexual development.
As the situation developed, Khelif remained silent, but that ended recently.
Imane Khelif Speaks Out
Imane Khelif made history by winning gold in the women’s 66kg category at the 2024 Paris Olympics, beating Italy’s Angela Carini.
The new president of the International Olympic Committee [IOC], Kirsty Coventry, stated that Khelif could keep her title after social media claimed it should be stripped because of questions surrounding her gender.
Despite this, in her first major speech in her new position, Coventry revealed that they would take measures for the “protection of the women’s category.”
On June 30th, Khelif broke her silence.
Making use of her official Instagram account, she released a strong message through her stories. Sharing a selfie, Imane wrote: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
