Algeria’s Imani Khelif has overwhelmed a Chinese language boxer amid a heated dispute concerning the athlete’s eligibility
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif gained Olympic gold on Friday after defeating China’s Yang Liu within the ladies’s welterweight boxing remaining on the Paris Video games. The victory comes amid controversy surrounding Khelif’s gender eligibility.
Khelif, who triumphed in each spherical of the match, was disqualified from the Girls’s World Boxing Championship in New Delhi final 12 months after DNA assessments led to the Algerian and several other different athletes being declared ineligible. On the time, the president of the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA), Umar Kremlev, stated the assessments “proved they’d XY chromosomes and had been thus excluded from the sports activities occasions.”
Earlier this 12 months, the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) admitted Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of the Chinese language Taipei staff – who was additionally disqualified from final 12 months’s competitors – to the match in Paris. Final week, IOC spokesman Mark Adams claimed that each one opponents “adjust to the eligibility guidelines,” whereas casting doubt on the assessments made final 12 months.
Earlier this month, Khelif turned the topic of worldwide consideration after defeating Italian boxer Angela Carini in simply 46 seconds in a preliminary match. The brief bout sparked outrage on-line, with many calling the Algerian athlete ‘male’ because of the earlier failed gender assessments.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated Carini’s bout towards Khelif was not a struggle amongst equals, including that “athletes who’ve male genetic traits shouldn’t be admitted to ladies’s competitions.” British creator J.Ok. Rowling and American billionaire Elon Musk additionally referred to as the competitors unfair.
In 2019, the IOC suspended the IBA, citing alleged governance, finance, refereeing, and moral points. The affiliation was not concerned within the boxing occasions on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Relations between the 2 our bodies additional soured within the wake of the Ukraine battle. In 2022, the IBA, which is headed by Kremlev, a Russian nationwide, overturned a ban on Russian and Belarusian boxers, changing into one of many few international sports activities organizations to permit them to carry out with their nationwide flags and anthems regardless of worldwide sanctions. Final 12 months, the IOC stripped the IBA of recognition over alleged failure to implement reforms on governance and finance, and took cost of boxing on the Paris Olympics.
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