Imane Khelif hits again at Donald Trump and targets Olympic gold in LA

Imane Khelif has mentioned she is trying ahead to defending her Olympic title in Los Angeles and won’t be intimidated by Donald Trump. The 25-year-old Algerian boxer, who received gold amid controversy and large media consideration on the Paris Olympics final 12 months, has signalled her intention to repeat the feat in 2028 and hit again after Trump wrongly claimed she was transgender in August.

In an interview with ITV Information to be broadcast on Wednesday night, Khelif mentioned: “I will provide you with an easy reply: the US President issued a choice associated to transgender insurance policies in America. I’m not transgender. This doesn’t concern me and it doesn’t intimidate me.”

That got here after Khelif interrupted a query about her dream of repeating her triumph, saying: “Second gold medal, after all. In America, Los Angeles.” Khelif’s victory in Paris, together with that of Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting, sparked a gender eligibility debate. Excessive-profile figures equivalent to Trump, Elon Musk and JK Rowling weighed in.

Khelif, who launched a “cyber-harassment” swimsuit in August that named Musk and Rowling, revealed she was “deeply affected mentally” by the “main media marketing campaign” surrounding her and mentioned her mom was attending hospital nearly every day as her household shared the brunt of the assaults.

The furore adopted an Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) resolution to dismiss the blood checks that had prompted the now discredited Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA) to disqualify Khelif and Lin from the world championships in 2023.

Khelif mentioned: “As we are saying in Algeria, those that don’t have anything to cover shouldn’t have any concern. The reality turned clear on the Paris Olympics – the injustice was uncovered and, later, the reality was acknowledged by the [IOC] in Paris.

“I see myself as a lady, identical to every other woman. I used to be born a lady, raised as a lady and have lived my complete life as one. I’ve competed in lots of tournaments, together with the Tokyo Olympics and different main competitions, in addition to 4 world championships.

“All of those occurred earlier than I began successful and incomes titles, however as soon as I started attaining success, the campaigns towards me began.

Final week, the outgoing IOC president, Thomas Bach, mentioned the row over each boxers participating within the Olympics was primarily based on “a pretend information marketing campaign coming from Russia.” He added: “They have been raised as girls, they’ve been competing as girls, they’ve been successful and shedding as each different individual.”