AFTER being rocked by gender controversy over her performance, Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif performed brilliantly in the final round and won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Saturday (10/8) WIB.
Khelif recorded a final victory in the women’s 66kg class over China’s Yang Liu, in a match held at Roland Garros.
Khelif said the gold medal was the ‘right response’ to the attacks and bullying he had experienced in recent years.
last time.
“I am a woman, like any other woman,” Khelif stressed.
Controversy and negative speculation about Khelif’s gender arose when Italian female boxer Angela Carini decided to stop fighting Khelif after only 46 seconds in the ring.
In the quarter-final match, Carini claimed she had ‘never been hit that hard before’ by a female boxer.
Also read: This is what the IOC said about the gender controversy of Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif
The claim then spread with the suggestion that Khelif might be transgender, or not biologically born female.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) immediately confirmed that this was false and misleading information.
Previously, Khelif and Taiwanese female boxer Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from last year’s World Championships, after they were deemed to have failed a gender eligibility test by the international federation.
Also read: Imane Khelif does not turn Controversy
Now, both Lin and Khelif are in the finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics in different classes.
“I was the target of a fierce bullying and hate campaign, and this (gold medal) is the best response to them,”
Khalif’s letter.
With a gold medal hanging around his neck, Khelif was asked in a packed press conference about the ‘eligibility’ dispute that has haunted him at the Olympics.
“I am fully qualified to take part. I am a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, live my life as a woman, and compete as a woman,” Khelif stressed.
“They (the taunts, the bullying) are the enemies of success. And that makes my success feel special because of the attacks.
“this,” he concluded. (Ant/Z-1)
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