Gender-row boxer Imane Khelif vies for gold in women’s welterweight Olympic final TONIGHT… but TeamGB’s Sharon Davies warns female athletes could die in the ring if they are forced to box against failed gender-test competitors like the Algerian

Gender-row boxer Imane Khelif hopes to defy her many critics to winning Olympic gold tonight.

The 25-year-old Algerian has been at the centre of the biggest controversy at Paris 2024 after she was allowed to compete at the Olympic Games despite being previously disqualified for failing a gender eligibility test.

But she overcame anger at her inclusion in the world’s most prestigious sporting event to reach the final to fight for the gold medal in the welter-weight division.

Khelif is competing against Yang Liu of China in what is expected to be three hard-fought rounds at the Roland Garros tennis stadium that has been converted into a boxing arena.

Up to now she has won each of four matches on points without losing a single round.

The controversy, which has brought criticism from women’s rights campaigners including author JK Rowling and former Olympian Sharon Davies, began when she was disqualified from 2023 world championships by the International Boxing Association.

But Khelif’s inclusion at the 2024 Olympic Games exploded into a huge row after she beat her Italian opponent Angela Carini in just 46 seconds when Carini quit the match and sank to her knees in tears, declaring; ‘it’s just not fair.’

Carini said she had never been hit so hard and stoked claims that the Algerian is not a woman.

Khelif was also reduced to tears after her second fight, against Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori, when she shouted from the ring; ‘I am a woman.’

Khelif has also been the target ‘wave of transphobic hatred on the internet’, the Paris prosecutor’s office has revealed.

The International Olympic Committee [IOC] has repeatedly reaffirmed Khelif’s right – and the right of Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan to compete in Paris despite both being banned from competing by the IBA.

IOC president Thomas Bach described criticism of the boxers as ‘hate speech’.

He said: ‘We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women.’

However yesterday former TeamGB swimmer Sharon Davies claimed female boxers could be killed inside the ring if they are forced compete against failed gender-test competitors like Khelif.

She said: ‘In boxing, it is insane to put a male in a ring with a female and for the IOC to say the only thing that’s important to them is what is on a passport is genuine neglect.

‘The duty of care has been thrown out the window, and my head wants to explode.

‘We’re literally on the cusp of a female athlete potentially being killed if we’re not careful. It really is that bad.’

Other boxers competing at the Games have protested in more subtle ways with Turkey’s Esra Yildiz and Svetlana Staneva from Bulgaria – who were both beaten by Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan – making an ‘X’ sign with their fingers to represent the female X chromosome.

Khelif has said the intense scrutiny of her gender she has received ‘harms human dignity’.

She said winning a gold medal would be ‘the best response’ to the backlash against her.

Khelif has also won the backing of huge crowds of supporters in Paris with Algeria fans packing the boxing stadiums and waving flags.

She has also become a national hero in the North African country.

More than 20,000 people have signed an online petition supporting Khelif, under the title ‘Stand with Olympian Imane Khelif Against Unjust Treatment’.