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Is Paris set for the most controversial Olympic boxing match of all time? Gender row Algerian Imane Khelif fights tonight for a place in the final and a chance to win GOLD amid growing fury
Controversial gender row boxer Imane Khelif fights in her semi-final tonight – potentially setting up the Olympics’ most controversial final ever.
Khelif, 25, has been at the centre of controversy as she is competing in the Paris Games after being previously disqualified from the World Championships for failing a gender eligibility test.
She could now advance to the welterweight boxing final and therefore get the chance to win the gold medal if she wins her fight against Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the semi-final tonight.
Khelif's controversial time at the Olympics saw her win against her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, in just 46 seconds after Carini quit the match and sank to her knees in tears, saying 'it's just not fair'.
Khelif (left), 25, has been at the centre of controversy as she is competing in the Paris Games after being previously disqualified from the World Championships for failing a gender eligibility test (pictured right: Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary)
Khelif (pictured after winning her quarter-final match) could now advance to the welterweight boxing final and therefore get the chance to win the gold medal if she wins her fight against Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the semi-final around 9.30pm tonight
Khelif's controversial time at the Olympics saw her win against her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, in just 46 seconds after Carini quit the match and sank to her knees in tears
Asked why she was being targeted at these Olympics, Khelif said yesterday: 'This is the question I am asking myself. Why now? Why is this happening now?
'I don't care. What's important Is that I came here with a focus on my goal, which is the Olympics.
'Today I am in the semi-finals. God willing, I will be up to the challenge in the semifinals. And God willing, I will be able to keep it under control and pass these two stages and the semifinals.'
She said she should face the same protections enjoyed by other athletes at the games.
She added: 'I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles according to the Olympic charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes because this thing has effects, massive effects.
'It can destroy people. It can kill people's thoughts, spirits, and mind. And it can divide people.
'And because of that I ask them to refrain from bullying. And that's it.'
In an interview with Associated Press TV, she said she had concerns about the effects on her relations back in Algeria.
'I am in contact with my family two days a week. I hope they were not affected deeply. They are worried about me. God willing, this crisis will culminate in a gold medal and that would be the best response.'
Carini, who first faced off against Khelif, complained after the match that Khelif's punches were unlike anything she had felt before and thereby drew attention to the speculation over her gender.
Carini later said she regretted her decision and wished to apologise to Khelif for walking out of the ring.
But the shocking ending to the bout after just 46 seconds triggered a wave of vitriol directed at the Algerian on social media, with many high-profile figures - including former US President Donald Trump and Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowling - falsely claiming Khelif was a man or transgender.
But it was the Algerian (left) who was reduced to tears after her last fight against Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori (right) and shouted from the ring: 'I am a woman,' hitting back at claims she was a man
Khelif came under huge criticism after she beat Angela Carini within 46 seconds last week
In an interview with Associated Press TV, she said she had concerns about the effects on her relations back in Algeria. (Khelif, pictured front right, as a child)
Angela Carini of Italy (right) lasted only 46 seconds against the Algerian boxer (left)
Imane Khelif of Team Algeria celebrates victory against Anna Luca Hamori of Team Hungary
Imane was seen wiping her eyes as she was flooded with emotions after her victory
Khelif herself has said that the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender 'harms human dignity,' and has called for an end to bullying athletes after being greatly affected by the international backlash against her.
Khelif, who was born a female and described by Olympic chief Thomas Bach as 'a woman... a woman… a woman', had been targeted by the International Boxing Association (IBA) at the World championships in India.
But she remained defiant after her second Hungarian rival posted a picture on the internet in the run up to the fight of 'a beauty and a beast.'
Hamori, before stepping into the ring with Khelif, declared she would enter her next fight not concerned whether she would be contesting the bout with a man or a woman.
But it only helped increase the focus on Khelif's sex and Olympic chiefs slammed the online 'hate speech' levied towards her.
Khelif expressed gratitude to the IOC and its president Thomas Bach for standing resolutely behind her while the banned former governing body of Olympic boxing stoked a furore around her participation in Paris.
'I know that the Olympic Committee has done me justice, and I am happy with this remedy because it shows the truth,' she said.
Imane Khelif and Anna Luca Hamori pictured embracing each other and grinning
An emotional Imane Khelif cries after she guaranteed herself an Olympic medal by winning against Anna Luca Hamon
Genetic tests that were reportedly taken in 2023 have shown that the 25-year-old Khelif has male XY chromosomes in her DNA, according to the IBA. But she is not transgender
Khelif was one of two boxers to have their sex questioned at the Olympics with the second being Taipei's Lin Yu-Ting (Lin Yu-ting after defeating Staneva on Sunday)
Khelif was one of two boxers to have their sex questioned at the Olympics with the second being Taipei's Lin Yu-Ting who has also secured at least a bronze.
Khelif and Yu-Ting, 28, were disqualified from last year's World Championships, after they were reported to have failed gender tests.
Neither are trans, but officials from the Russian backed IBA, which issued the ban, said both had XY chromosomes, the male gene - but continually refused to specify what kind of test they administered to Khelif.
The governing body was permanently banned from the Olympics last year amid concerns over its murky testing standards and governance.
World Boxing Organisation (WBO) official Istvan Kovacs claimed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was warned that Khelif supposedly failed the IBA-administered female gender test.
Kovacs, who is the European vice president of the WBO and former Secretary General of the IBA - which was permanently banned from the Olympics last year amid concerns over its murky testing standards and governance - declared the IOC was informed in 2022 about the discrepancy but chose not to act.
Kovacs, himself a former Olympic and world champion boxer, told Hungarian outlet Magyar Nemzet: 'The problem was not with the level of Khelif's testosterone, because it can be adjusted nowadays, but with the result of the gender test, which clearly revealed that the Algerian boxer is biologically male.'
But the IBA's claims over Khelif have been heavily scrutinised. Olympic officials say the matter is a 'minefield' and that no forensic and unquestionable scientific evidence has been provided to prove both athletes were not women.
IOC President Thomas Bach said there is no doubt Khelif is a biological woman and lambasted the unspecified IBA gender tests as 'illegitimate'.
While Khelif could secure her chance in the final to fight for gold tonight, Yu-Ting will take on Turkey's Esra Yildiz in the featherweight semi-final tomorrow night - and is already guaranteed at least a bronze medal.