Imane Khelif was diminished to tears after she secured a historic win for Algeria in ladies’s boxing. The 25-year-old turned the first feminine boxer from her nation to substantiate a medal within the Olympics after she defeated Luca Anna Hamori from Hungary within the quarterfinals of the ladies’s 66kg class on Saturday (August 3) on the North Paris Area.
She additionally bagged the primary boxing medal for Algeria in 24 years after Mohamed Allalou received bronze within the 60-63.5 light-welterweigh class within the Sydney Olympics 2000. Khelif, who additionally received the silver medal within the 2022 World Championships, couldn’t maintain on to her feelings because the referee declared her the winner towards her Hungarian opponent.
Amid her spectacular run, Khelif has additionally been within the limelight for the gender row that she is concerned in. It began after Italy’s Angela Carini deserted her struggle towards Khelif within the Spherical of 16 after solely 46 minutes, and it sparked a debate about whether or not Khelif ought to have been allowed to compete.
Again in 2023, the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA) disqualified her on the World Championships in New Delhi. Khelif, together with Lin Yu-ting from China failed the IBA’s eligibility guidelines that prevented athletes with male XY chromosomes in ladies’s occasions.
Thomas Bach defends Imane Khelif
IOC president Thomas Bach additionally opened up on the identical, saying that Khelif has been exhausting achieved by because of the “hate speech” directed at her.
“What’s going on on this context within the social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, and fuelled by this agenda, is completely unacceptable,” the Worldwide Olympic Committee chief stated.
Khelif will subsequent be up towards Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng within the semi-final on Wednesday, August 7. She is now trying to change into the second Algerian after Hocine Soltani to win a gold medal in boxing on the Olympics.
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