Imane Khelif is an Olympic champion after she defeated Yang Liu in the women’s boxing welterweight final at the Paris 2024 to win the gold medal.
Algeria’s Khelif dominated the action across all three rounds and won the fight against China’s Liu by unanimous decision to be the last one standing in her weight class and ensure that she had the final say after a whirlwind week.
Khelif has been the main talking point from this year’s Olympic boxing, ever since her opening round match against Italy’s Angela Carini last week.
It took Khelif just 46 seconds to win the fight via first round stoppage, with Carina refusing to acknowledge her opponent following the contest and claiming afterwards that she had never been punched as hard as she had in that bout.
A few days later, Carina did a U-turn on her stance, apologising for how she handled the situation and stating that she should not have reacted the way that she did.
Before Carina’s apology, there was a huge reaction around the world on social media, partly due to Khelif, along with Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting, both being previously disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by the IBA, who stated the duo ‘did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events.’
That caused many onlookers, including a number of big name celebrities, to believe that meant that Khelif has transitioned from man to woman and was now competing against fellow women at the Olympics, which there has been no evidence of.
The row was not helped by the ongoing issues that have gone on between the IBA and the IOC, with the IOC publicly coming out to support Khelif and criticise the IBA for their handling of the situation.
Despite the controversy, Khelif continued to compete throughout the Olympics, picking up wins against Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori and Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng to reach the final.
Earlier this week she spoke for the first time since the controversy began, stating how difficult she had found the whole process for not just her, but for her family too.
It appears that she can now put all of that behind her though, after winning the gold medal, with attention now set to turn to whether she will continue to box as an amateur or if she will look to gain success in the professional ranks.
The other female fighter that was at the centre of the controversy was Lin Yu-Ting, who is also through to the Olympic final, as she prepares to take on Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in the featherweight class tomorrow.
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