Paris Olympics 2024: Algeria's Imane Khelif's win at the Paris 2024 Olympics amid a row surrounding her gender in the women's 66 kg final boxing category was historic. After winning her gold, Imane said she is a woman, “like any other woman”.
The 24-year-old won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight division, defeating China's Yang Liu with a dominant 5:0 score.
Talking to news agency AP, the boxer addressed the controversy surrounding her gender and said, "I am a woman like any woman. I was born a woman, and I have lived as a woman, but there are enemies to success, and they can't digest my success.”
Imane had to fight a fierce battle to the podium amid gender disputes. In 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) had disqualified her for failing gender eligibility test. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) dismissed those tests as “baseless” and allowed her to compete in the Olympics.
“We are in the Olympics to perform as athletes, and I hope that we will not see any similar attacks in future Olympics,” she said. “I'm fully qualified to participate in this competition.”
“I'm a woman like any other woman. I was born as a woman, I live as a woman, and I am qualified," she asserted.
Imane and another boxer, Li Yu-ting of Taiwan, are surrounded by the same controversy. There are ongoing concerns regarding gender eligibility in sports.
The IBA initially disqualified both athletes but cleared them to compete after the association was banned from the Olympics due to governance issues.
“It was my dream [to win this medal] and I am very happy today that I’m an Olympic gold medallist,” Khelif told the BBC after winning. “Eight years of hard work, eight years of [being] too tired, eight years of no sleep – [this is] fantastic.”
