Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal on Friday at the Paris Olympic Gamesemerging as a champion after a tumultuous run at the Games where she has faced intense in-ring surveillance and online abuse around the world because of misconceptions about her femininity.
Khelif beat China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the final of the women’s welterweight division, concluding the best run of her boxing career with victory at Roland Garros.
In Paris, cheering crowds greeted Khelif, draped in Algerian flags and chanting her name, even as she faced extraordinary scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she was a man. It thrust her into a broader divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sports.
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Khelif told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, last weekend that the wave of hateful criticism she has received “violates human dignity” She also called for an end to harassment of athletes. She also said a gold medal would be “the best response” to the backlash against her.
The distrust stems from the decision by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association to disqualify Khelif and fellow Taiwanese Li Yu-ting, a two-time Olympic champion, from last year’s world championships, saying both had failed an obscure eligibility test for women’s competition.
Last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took the unprecedented step of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics, following years of concerns about its governance, fairness of competition and financial transparency. The IOC called the arbitrary drug testing imposed on the two boxers by the sport’s governing body “fatally flawed.”
The IOC has repeatedly reaffirmed the right of both boxers to compete in Paris, with President Thomas Bach personally defending Khelif and Lin while calling such criticism “hate speech.”
“We have two female boxers who were born female, raised as women, have women’s passports and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said.
That hasn’t stopped the international outcry over misconceptions about the fighters, amplified by Russian disinformation networks. Nor has it slowed down two boxers who have reached the highest levels of their careers in the spotlight.
Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first gold medal in women’s boxing. She is only the country’s second boxing gold medalist, after Hocine Soltani (1996).
Hundreds of Khelif’s flag-waving and boisterous supporters filled the stands at the famed Roland Garros tennis complex in Paris, chanting, cheering and waving Algerian flags. Khelif has also become a heroine in her North African homeland, where many fans have seen the world’s dissection of Khelif as a critique of their nation.
Khelif’s fight was dubbed “The Night of Destiny” in local newspapers. Projection screens were set up in public squares in Algiers and other cities to allow the boxer to follow the fight. In the town of Tiaret, in Khelif’s home region, workers braved the scorching summer heat to paint a mural of her on the gymnasium where she learned to box.
“Imane has managed to turn criticism and attacks on her femininity into fuel,” said Mustapha Bensaou, from the Tiaret gymnasium. “The slander has given her a boost. (…) It’s a bit of a blessing in disguise.”
The gold medal fight is the highlight of Khelif’s career, which lasted nine days and began with a bizarre event. Khelif’s first opponent, Italian Angela Carini, gave up the fight after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif’s blows.
A story that had already been brewing suddenly became major international news, with former President Donald Trump and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling issuing false criticism and speculation about men’s and women’s competition in sports. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally visited Carini to offer her condolences and question Khelif’s eligibility.
Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Khelif. Italian newspaper La Stampa detailed Carini’s state of mind in the days leading up to the fight, describing the pressure both inside and outside her team felt to avoid the fight amid growing speculation about Khelif’s status.
Khelif has never performed as well in any other international tournament as she has in these Olympics. When pundits and provocateurs who had never seen her fight before portrayed her as some kind of unstoppable punching machine, her opponents and teammates who know her were shocked by the characterization.
She went on to live up to the idea of being one of the best Olympic female boxers in the world.
Boxing’s banned governing body did nothing to help its case over its disqualification from the world championships last year during a chaotic news conference in which its leaders contradicted themselves about the tests and refused to answer basic questions about them, citing privacy concerns from the Olympic committees of Algeria and Taiwan.
Lin will also fight for a gold medal on Saturday on the final day of the Olympics, where she will face Poland’s Julia Szeremeta for a chance to win Taiwan’s first boxing gold medal.
