PARIS – Algerian Imane Khelif won welterweight gold on Friday, dispatching China’s Yang Liu and overcoming a firestorm of questions from opponents who mistakenly asked him his gender.
Khelif won a unanimous decision as the huge Algerian crowd at the famous Roland-Garros Stadium cheered him on with chants of “allez Imane” and “1, 2, 3 Algérie!”
“I’m so happy, God made that (happen), it’s my dream!” Khelif spoke shortly after the battle.
Throughout the fight, Algerian female fans could be heard cheering him on with the zaghrouta, a high-pitched staccato chant.
Khelif said he heard his fans at Roland-Garros.
“I want to thank all the people here,” he said pointing to the seats, “and the people of Algeria who will support me, my coach and the Algerian team.”
All five judges had it 10-9 for Khelif in each match.
After the victory, a man in his corner lifted the fighter onto his shoulders and carried Khelif on a victory lap while holding the Algerian flag over his head.
The fighter said he blocked out the outside noise and focused on boxing.
“Yes, I am very happy with my performance,” he said. This fight to win. Amazing. I prepared for eight years in the USA, Europe, all over the world for this victory. Olympic Championship! Thank you so much!”
Khelif’s gold was celebrated at home in Algeria when President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said the fighter had made all Algerians proud.
“We are all proud of you, Imane, as an Olympic champion,” he said in a statement. “Your victory today is Algerian, and your gold is Algerian gold.
Khelif held up his gold medal for the cameras and said this was the culmination of eight years of work.
He said: “Long live Algeria. Algeria deserves more than just an award. “I call it an honorary award. It is a medal of honor. I thank God for everything. I dedicate this to the entire Arab world.”
Khelif and another boxer, featherweight Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei, are fighting under a French cloud after the first victory of Algerian Angela Carini, who retired after 46 seconds.
The Italians’ hasty surrender has sparked 2023 charges by the Russian-led International Boxing Federation which pulled the two fighters from the contest in New Delhi last year.
While Khelif clearly won, it was not a game. The silver medalist, Yang, used her 5-foot-10 frame to match up well with the 5-10 gold medalist.
Yang was asked if she felt this was a fair fight against another woman. Although he did not answer directly, Yang clearly refused the opportunity to raise the issue, the way the Turkish and Bulgarian fighters did with the loss to Lin.
“I don’t really know what’s going on outside,” Yang said. “My opponent is an exceptional competitor and he has done very well. I have a lot to learn from him.”
The IBA said it conducted tests in 2022 and 2023 that raised doubts about the gender of the boxers due to their chromosomes.
The IBA has not released the test results. A press conference hastily called by the IBA in Paris on Monday did not shed light on the accusation as the president of the group Umar Kremlev answered many questions with harsh words against the Olympics which he has always compared to the cities of the sinful Bible of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Both the IOC, which declared Khelif and Lin eligible due to the gender of their passports, and USA Boxing cut ties with the IBA, last year, before most of the sports world knew about Khelif and Lin.
The IBA is funded by the Russian state energy company Gazprom.
Khelif and Lin are veterans and well-known in the women’s boxing community.
Khelif’s father insists that his daughter is a woman, whom he raised as a girl. Lin said she took up boxing as a child, hoping to protect her mother from domestic violence.
This topic came up at the United Nations earlier this week when Russian and Algerian diplomats spoke out against the issue.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said that men fighting against women at the Olympics “is completely contradictory.”
The great Algerian scholar, Toufik Koudri, objected, saying that Khelif was born a woman, she lived the life of a “full woman” and that “there is not the slightest doubt in this matter, except those who have and (a) absurd political agendas.”
“He is a living legend. He was the first Algerian boxer to participate in the Olympics and win the best medal,” the Algerian Olympic Committee wrote on Facebook.
David K. Li and Sam Brock report from Paris and Rima Abdelkader reports from Connecticut.
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