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Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will play her final fight at the 2024 Paris Olympics, in the 66kg final against China's Liu Yuang at Roland Garros, hoping to turn the page on doubts about her sexual identity and win a gold medal.
Khalif has become one of the current stars of the French capital's games, but for a reason she probably didn't want.
The International Olympic Committee allowed her to compete after she and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting were suspended by the International Boxing Federation from last year's world championships for failing to pass gender eligibility tests.
Khalif was then denied a place in the world championship final in New Delhi due to not meeting gender eligibility criteria and “testosterone levels,” according to the Olympics website, which later removed the explanation.
The International Olympic Federation denied conducting tests to measure testosterone levels, but did not specify the nature of the analyses conducted to decide to exclude Khalif and Lin from the World Championships, in light of a severe dispute between the International Olympic Federation and the suspended International Olympic Federation, which is headed by Russian Omar Kremlev, who is linked to the Kremlin.
Regarding her handling of the campaign she faced in recent days, she said in a television statement: “There is a special team from the International Olympic Committee following me and doing the duty to avoid this shock. I am focusing on the competition, and other things are not important. The important thing is that I am in the final now.”
46 seconds in the first fight
Khalif has had three fights so far, the first against Italian Angela Carini, who withdrew after only 46 seconds following two strong punches to the head from the Algerian. She then defeated Hungarian Anna-Luca Hamori and Thai Jangam Suwanapheng on points to reach the final, noting that she came in fifth at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.
She was criticised after her first fight, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saying: “I believe that female athletes with male genetic characteristics should not be allowed to participate in women's competitions.”
The criticism reached across the Atlantic, with former US President and current candidate Donald Trump saying after her victory over Carini: “I will keep men out of women's competitions.”
As for the novelist J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, she wrote on the X platform that the Paris Games will remain “forever tainted by the cruel injustice that was done to Karenni.”
Celebrations in Algeria
In contrast, the International Olympic Committee supports it, and its citizens in Algeria celebrate its victories.
People gathered in her village, Biban Misbah, in the state of Tiaret (southwest), to watch her final fight, and cheers were heard after her victory was announced.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune congratulated her on the X platform: “Thank you, Iman Khalif, for making all Algerians happy, with this strong and wonderful qualification for the final.. The most important thing has been achieved, and God willing, the gold medal will be won.. All Algerian women and men are with you.”
“My daughter is a well-mannered and strong girl. I raised her to work and be brave, and she has a strong will to work and train,” her father, Omar Khalif, 49, told AFP, showing pictures of her as a child.
After reaching the semi-finals and securing a medal, she responded in tears to critics who described her as a “man,” telling beIN Sports: “This is a matter of dignity and honor for every woman or female. The entire Arab people have known me for years. For years I have been boxing in competitions for the International Federation, which wronged me. But I have God.”
Channels broadcasting the Khalifa vs. Liu Yuang match in the final
The Algerian boxing match is scheduled to take place today, Friday, at Roland Garros Stadium. The anticipated fiery confrontation will start at 11:50 Mecca time and 21:50 Doha time, Algeria time.
The match will be broadcast on the channels of the Qatari group “beIN Sports”, the exclusive owner of the broadcast of the Olympic Games competitions in the Middle East and North Africa.
The fight will be broadcast on beIN SPORTS HD9.
