After clinching a medal within the girls’s 66kg division, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has failed gender exams, gave a short message to the naysayers.
Khelif is combating within the girls’s class practically a yr after the IBA mentioned a gender check revealed the boxer had XY chromosomes.
Nevertheless, Khelif stays within the girls’s competitors, the boxer feels, for one motive:
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“I’m a girl.”
Khelif made that sentiment after defeating Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori. Khelif superior to the semifinals with that victory, and since boxing does not have semifinal matches, Khelif is assured, at worst, a bronze medal.
IOC President Thomas Bach earlier Saturday defended Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan. Khelif and Lin had been disqualified in the midst of final yr’s world championships by the IBA, the previous governing physique of Olympic boxing, after what it claimed had been failed eligibility exams.
Each had competed in IBA occasions for a number of years with out issues, and the Russian-dominated physique, which has confronted years of clashes with the IOC, has refused to offer any details about the exams, underscoring its lack of transparency in practically each facet of its dealings, significantly lately.
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“Let’s be very clear right here: We’re speaking about girls’s boxing,” Bach mentioned Saturday. “We now have two boxers who’re born as a girl, who’ve been raised a girl, who’ve a passport as a girl, and who’ve competed for a few years as girls. And that is the clear definition of a girl. There was by no means any doubt about them being a girl.”
The IOC has referred to as the IBA’s testing “flawed.”
Khelif’s mom, Irene, mentioned on Algerian tv after the bout that she was “happy with [her] daughter” and referred to as the boxer “brave regardless of racist and sexist assaults to interrupt her.”
The controversy reached new heights when a previous opponent of Khelif, Italian Angela Carini, forfeited her match in opposition to Khelif simply 46 seconds into their bout.
Khelif will battle for an opportunity at a gold-medal bout on Tuesday at 4:34 p.m. ET in opposition to Thai boxer Janjaem Suwannapheng.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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