Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s recent victory has raised questions about her eligibility to compete against female boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Last night’s match was a fast-paced affair, with Khelif unleashing a barrage of punches on her opponent Angela Carini, forcing the Italian to surrender the match after 46 seconds.
Carini said after the match that she was forced to stop due to “severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer I said ‘enough’… I couldn’t finish the match.”
She also made it clear that she had not withdrawn based on gender issues, nor had she made any judgment about Khelif’s fitness to fight.
However, the Algerian’s victory was overshadowed by accusations that she is not a woman and failed a gender test last year.
Italian Angela Carini was crying in the middle of the ring when she tapped out of the match. Her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif walked up to her and gave her a pat on the shoulder, but Carini quickly left the ring. Source: MONKEY / John Locher / AP
Here’s what we know about Khelif’s trip to Paris.
Who is Imane Khelif?
The 25-year-old has been boxing since childhood, in women-only competitions.
She is an experienced amateur boxer and previously competed in the 2019 Women’s Boxing World Championships in New Delhi and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she reached the quarter-finals.
Khelif won a silver medal at the 2022 Women’s World Championships in Istanbul.
Why are there questions about her gender identity?
Khelif has been accused of having high testosterone levels, with some even calling her a man online, which critics say could give her a dangerous advantage in combat sports.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended its decision to allow both Khelif and Taiwan’s two-time world champion Lin Yu-Ting, who faces similar questions, to compete at the Paris Games.
Neither athlete has publicly identified as transgender or intersex.
The IOC said the rules for participation are based on those of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and regretted the aggression against the two athletes.
“These boxers are fully eligible. They are women on their passports, they are women who have competed in the Tokyo Olympics and have been competing for years. I think we all have a responsibility to slow down a bit and not turn this into a witch hunt,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Tuesday.
Amy Broadhurst, who defeated Khelif at the 2022 World Championships, supported the boxer.
“I personally don’t think she did anything to ‘cheat,’” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“I think it’s the way she was born and she has no control over it… the fact that she [beaten] by nine women says enough.”
Why was she disqualified in 2023?
In March 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) ruled that Khelif and Yu-ting did not meet the criteria to compete in the women’s competition and disqualified them from that year’s world championships.
Without revealing details, they concluded that “both athletes did not meet the required eligibility criteria and that they had a competitive advantage over other female competitors.”
Some sports have restrictions on the amount of testosterone athletes can produce in women’s competitions, while other sports ban anyone who has already reached male puberty.
However, the IBA noted that the athletes “did not undergo testosterone testing” and were instead subjected to separate and recognised tests.
The IOC said the IBA’s decision to disqualify the boxers last year was arbitrary and the main cause of the outcry that has led to people like British author JK Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk speaking out against their participation in the Games.
“These two athletes were victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA,” the IOC said in a statement. “Towards the end of the 2023 IBA World Championships, they were suddenly disqualified without any form of due process.
The IBA was stripped of its recognition by the IOC last year amid allegations of corruption, financial problems and governance questions, forcing the Olympic body to host the boxing competition in Paris.
With additional reporting from Reuters news agency.
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