Imane Khelif of Algeria beat Yang Liu of the People’s Republic of China to win gold in women’s welterweight division at Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Friday at Stade Roland-Garros. Khelif was one of two boxers embroiled in a controversy about her gender. She previously competed at Tokyo 2021, where she became the first female boxer to represent Algeria at the Olympics. Since then, the 25-year-old Khelif has won gold medals at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and the 2023 Arab Games. She won the Paris 2024 final in dominant fashion by a final tally of 5-0.
"I’m very happy. For eight years, this has been my dream and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medallist," Khelif said. "I’ve worked for eight years, no sleep, eight years tired. Now I’m Olympic champion."
Khelif had been disqualified from the 2023 world amateur championships under suspicious circumstances. After competing for years and even winning the opening round of the 2023 tournament, IBA, the organization that runs the world amateur championship, abruptly disqualified Khelif for failing a gender test. Full details of the test were not revealed. Khelif is not transgender, having lived her entire life as a woman. While IBA controls the world amateur championships, it has no authority to determine who is eleigible for the Olympics becuae the International Olympic Committee threw IBA out of the Olympics over proven corruption in the 2016 Olympics.
The IOC issued a statement addressing the controversy. Neither Khelif nor Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan are transgender, but there appears to be concerns about their chromosomes (females are XX, males are XY) or testosterone levels. The IOC stated, "We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments. These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process."
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Yang, the silver medal winner also participated at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics and earned gold at the 2023 world amateur championships in this same weight class. "I tried my best, but my opponent was much better. She is an excellent fighter and so strong," Yang said. Three days earlier Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand and Chen Nien Chin of the People’s Republic of China both won bronze.
