One wrote: “Imane Khelif’s early life is actually the kind of inspiring, girl power story you would think someone who claims to care about women would champion.”
Another pointed out: “Imane Khelif was born in Algeria.It’s a Fundamentalist country where homosexuality, sex change is illegal, and she had to go past the obstacles of her father’s disapproval to be able to do Boxing. She looks like an average Female Boxer.”
Another asked: “Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman. She was born female, was registered as a girl at birth, is legally a woman, & continues to identify as a woman. Is transphobia now so bad that even cisgender women cannot be women if they don’t comply with a certain woman ideal-type?”
Meanwhile, JK Rowling shared another article that said: ‘Someone with a DSD cannot help the way they were born but they can choose not to cheat; they can choose not to take medals from women; they can choose not to cause injury.”
Several others were also involved in the fracas. Reacting to Elon Musk’s comments, footballer Adlene Guedioura, wrote: “Imane Khelif is our Algerian pride. SHE’S an excellent boxer and you should verify first before relaying wrong information.”
Amy Broadhurst, a former world champion wrote: “Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beating by 9 females before says it all.”
Incidentally, the Irish boxer had competed for Team Great Britain in Paris Olympics, and previously beat Khelif in the final of the 2022 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.
2022 Women’s World Championship 63kg Final: Ireland’s Amy Broadhurst V Algeria’s Imane Khelif
What happened in the match?
Imane Khelif of Algeria secured a victory in her opening Olympic boxing match on Thursday when her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, unexpectedly quit after just 46 seconds. Khelif, who was previously disqualified from the 2023 World Championships due to an unspecified gender eligibility test, has become a controversial figure at the Paris Olympics.
The match saw minimal action before Carini, who appeared to have issues with her headgear, walked away and abandoned the bout—a rare occurrence in Olympic boxing. She did not shake Khelif’s hand after the decision, instead, she knelt in the ring, visibly emotional.
Carini later explained that she withdrew due to intense pain in her nose caused by the initial punches. She emphasized that her decision was not a political statement or a refusal to fight Khelif. “I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said, adding that it was not her place to judge Khelif’s eligibility to compete.
Khelif is an accomplished amateur boxer, having won a silver medal at the 2022 International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships. However, she was disqualified from last year’s championship just before her gold-medal match due to what the IBA claimed were elevated testosterone levels.
The 25-year-old Khelif entered the ring to cheers from the crowd, but the match’s abrupt end left many spectators confused. Italy’s coach, Emanuele Renzini, mentioned that he had discussed the option of withdrawing with Carini beforehand, but she had been determined to fight until the match began.
“I am heartbroken because I am a fighter,” Carini said afterward. “This time I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t fight anymore, and so I ended the match.”
Khelif’s next challenge is a quarterfinal bout against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary, who expressed no concern about facing Khelif. “I’m not scared,” said Hamori, dismissing the surrounding controversy and focusing on her own path to victory.
Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, have faced intense scrutiny for their participation in the Paris Games. Lin, a two-time world champion, was stripped of a bronze medal last year by the IBA due to unspecified eligibility concerns. Lin begins her Olympic journey on Friday, fighting Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan.
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement condemning the “lies” and “unethical targeting” of Khelif by certain foreign media outlets. Meanwhile, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni criticized the decision to allow Carini to fight Khelif, arguing that it could lead to discrimination against women’s rights.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended the boxers’ right to compete, stating that their eligibility was determined based on the rules from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The IOC has taken over boxing in Paris due to the IBA’s loss of Olympic status following governance issues and controversies over transparency and corruption.
The IBA, led by Russian president Umar Kremlev, has been at odds with the IOC and has used the situation involving Khelif and Lin to criticize the IOC’s actions. Despite the IOC’s ban being upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the IBA continues to challenge the decision in Swiss courts. The IBA has also allowed Russian fighters to compete under their national flag, further straining relations with the IOC.
With inputs from agencies