By Michael Chammas
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has defeated Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori to book a semi-final spot in the women’s 66kg category, amid a gender row that’s erupted in Paris.
Khelif, one of two competitors at the Games to have previously failed gender eligibility tests run by the International Boxing Association, won 5-0.
Imane Khelif celebrates her win.Credit: Getty Images
Hamori lit the fuse for the match after posting, then deleting, an image on social media depicting a small woman preparing to fight against a beast under the Olympic rings.
Khelif was overcome with emotion after winning the bout – pounding her fist on the canvas before breaking down in tears in her corner.
Her bout against Italian Angela Carini ended in controversy after the Italian opponent withdrew after just 46 seconds and claimed: “I had to safeguard my life”
On Saturday, IOC president Thomas Bach told a press conference in Paris that there were no issues with Khelif and Chinese Taipe boxer Lin Yu-ting competing against women.
“Let’s be very clear here, we are talking about women’s boxing, and we have two boxers born as women, have been raised as women, who have passports as woman and competed for many years as women,” Bach said.
“This is the clear definition of a woman, there was never any doubt about them being a woman, what we see now is some want to own the definition of who is a woman.”
In the press conference he added: “this is not a DSD (Differences of Sex Development) case, this is about a woman taking part in a women’s competition, and I think I have explained this many times.”
The IOC had to send out a correction later that afternoon with a statement that claimed Bach intended to say “this is not a transgender case”, rather than “this is not a DSD case”.
