Imane Khelif Set To Return From Paris Olympics 2024 With A Medal Amid Controversy Over Boxer's Gender

Imane Khelif is now guaranteed to win a medal in the Paris Olympics 2024. The Algerian boxer beat Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary 5-0 in the women's welterweight quarterfinal.

Algeria's Imane Khelif outclassed Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary 5-0 in the women's welterweight quarterfinal. Khelif is guaranteed of a medal at Paris Olympics 2024.

Source : X/@Algeria_FC

Algeria boxer Imane Khelif is assured of an Olympic medal in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 amid controversy over the boxer's gender. Khelif registered a 5:0 win over Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the quarterfinals of the women's 66-kilogram bout and will win at least a bronze medal.

Notably, the controversy arose after Italy's Angela Carini abandoned the fight 46 seconds into the bout and later said that she had never been hit as hard before. This followed by the now banned International Boxing Association (IBA) claiming that Khelif had earlier failed a gender test led to online abuse and hate towards the Algerian.

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However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already disqualified IBA. It also nulled the ban of Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting. 

"These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process," the IOC said in an official statement.

"The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years," it added.

Imane Khelif Being Hailed As 'Heroine' In Her Home Village

Meanwhile, Imane Khelif is being hailed as a 'heroine' in her home village.

"Since she was little her passion has always been sport," Imane Khelif's father was quoted as saying in a report carried by news agency AFP.

The same journalistic piece claims that Imane Khelif's father showed the birth certificate of her daughter and insisted that she won the fight over her Italian opponent, the one after which the pugilist was on the receiving end of backlash online, was because she was stronger and the Italian was weak.

There is currently no evidence to show that Imane Khelif is biologically male despite several theories loosely floating around on the internet.