Imane Khelif said she owed her gold medal in the women’s welterweight boxing final to “eight years of hard work” and “eight years of no sleep” after weeks of criticism about her gender and misunderstandings.
“Yes! It’s my dream, I’m very happy,” the 25-year-old Algerian told the BBC through an interpreter. “My family is happy. All of Algeria is happy today. Eight years of hard work. Eight years of no sleep… Today I’m very happy to have won the gold medal.”
Khelif defeated China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the women’s welterweight final, capping the best run of her boxing career with a victory at Roland Garros, where the crowd chanted her name, waved Algerian flags and cheered every punch she threw.
After her unanimous victory, Khelif jumped into the arms of her coaches, one of whom put her on his shoulders and carried her around the arena on a lap of honor, while she clenched her fists and grabbed an Algerian flag from someone in the crowd.
Khelif was utterly dominant in Paris, winning every round on every judge’s scorecard in each of her three fights that went the distance. But it was the fight that didn’t go the distance – her victory over Italy’s Angela Carini – that caused controversy. Carini stopped their fight after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif’s punches.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif kisses her medal as silver medalist Liu Yang of China smiles
Algeria’s Imane Khelif reacts after victory over China’s Yang Liu
Algeria’s Imane Khelif beats People’s Republic of China’s Liu Yang in the final
An already simmering story suddenly became major international news, with the likes of former U.S. President Donald Trump and ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling criticizing and spreading false speculation about men competing with women in sports. Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Khelif.
That controversy seemed irrelevant on Friday as Khelif partied with her Algerian compatriots, many of whom were in Paris.
“Yes, I want to thank all the Algerians who came to Paris,” said Khelif, who was given female status at birth and has always been registered as female in her passport – the International Olympic Committee’s threshold for participation.
‘I want to thank the people of Algeria all over the world!’
Khelif was undoubtedly one of the most polarizing figures at the Paris Olympics.
Fans have embraced Khelif in Paris even as she has faced an extraordinary amount of criticism from world leaders, major celebrities and others who questioned her fitness or falsely claimed she is a man. It has thrown her into a wider divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulation in sports.
That continued Friday night when Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and critic of trans women in sports, continued to accuse Khelif of being a man. (Again, Khelif is not trans and was assigned female at birth.)
“Ask yourself what this teaches the next generation,” Gaines wrote on X. “It teaches boys that it’s okay (in fact, it’s encouraged and rewarded) to hit women. It teaches girls to ignore their instincts, accept the abuse with a smile on their faces, and never dare question it…or else.”
Algeria’s Imane Khelif celebrates victory over China’s Liu Yang
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines continued to accuse Khelif of being a man
Earlier last week, Khelif told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, that a gold medal would be “the best response” to the backlash against her. She also said the wave of hateful criticism she has received “harms human dignity” and called for an end to bullying of athletes.
But the reports from Algeria were clearly more positive.
“Algerian women continue to make us proud,” read a post from one of the national football X accounts, Algeria FC.
“It takes an insane mental strength to compete at a high level after all that hate and overcome it by performing,” one fan wrote. “Well deserved gold for Imane Khelif.”
Much of the controversy stems from the decision by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association to disqualify Khelif and her Taiwanese counterpart Li Yu-ting, a two-time Olympic competitor, from last year’s world championships, claiming that both had failed an ambiguous entry test for the women’s competition.
The International Olympic Committee took the unprecedented step last year of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics after years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency. The IOC has called the arbitrary sex tests the sports governing body imposed on the two boxers irredeemably flawed.
Others congratulated Khelif on her victory after two weeks of controversy
Algeria’s Imane Khelif undergoes examination after match against China’s Liu Yang
The IOC has repeatedly stressed that the two boxers have the right to compete in Paris. President Thomas Bach personally defended Khelif and Lin, calling the criticism “hate speech.”
“We have two boxers who were born as women, who were raised as women, who have a female passport and who have been competing as women for many years,” Bach said.
That hasn’t stopped the international outrage over misconceptions surrounding the fighters, amplified by Russian disinformation networks. Nor has it slowed down two boxers who have performed at the highest levels of their careers while in the spotlight.
Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing. She is only the country’s second gold medalist, after Hocine Soltani (1996) who claimed the seventh gold medal in Algeria’s entire Olympic history.
While Khelif has drawn enthusiastic, flag-waving fans in Paris, she has also become a hero in her North African country. Many have seen Khelif’s global dissection as a criticism of their country.
Khelif’s fight was dubbed “The Night of Destiny” in local newspapers, with projection screens set up to watch the fight in public squares in Algiers and other cities. In the town of Tiaret in Khelif’s home region, workers braved the scorching summer heat to paint a mural of Khelif on the gym where she learned to box.
“Imane has managed to turn the criticism and attacks on her femininity into fuel,” said Mustapha Bensaou of the Tiaret gym. “The slander has given her a boost. … It’s a bit of a blessing in disguise.”
Khelif won the first round against Yang on all five of the judges’ cards, despite showing slightly less aggression than earlier in the tournament. Khelif then knocked Yang back against the ropes with a combination early in the second round, though Yang responded with a flurry of punches and fought bravely.
Khelif won the second round and sailed through the third, staying just far enough away from Yang to avoid serious threat. Khelif did a triumphant boxer’s shuffle in the final seconds of the match before the fighters embraced. When the verdict was announced, Khelif saluted and then waved her arm in joy.
Khelif smiled broadly and waved to the crowd during the medal ceremony. She sang the Algerian national anthem with passion before kissing her gold medal. The four medalists — boxing gives two bronze — then posed for a podium selfie, clasping hands and holding them up together.
The gold medal battle was the highlight of Khelif’s nine-day run at an Olympic tournament that began with a bizarre event.
Khelif has never done so well in an international tournament as she has at these Olympics. When she was cast last week as some kind of unstoppable boxing machine by pundits and provocateurs who had never seen her fight before, opponents and teammates who knew her were shocked by the characterization.
Then her reputation as one of the best Olympic boxers in the world became a reality.
Lin also fights for a gold medal on Saturday’s final card of the Olympics, taking on Poland’s Julia Szeremeta for a chance to win Taiwan’s first boxing gold.
