PARIS — Algerian Imane Khelif won welterweight gold Friday, dispatching China’s Yang Liu and overcoming a firestorm of questions from opponents wrongly questioning her gender.
Khelif won in a unanimous decision as a large Algerian crowd at famed Roland-Garros Stadium cheered her on with chants of “allez Imane” and “1, 2, 3 Algérie!”
“I’m very happy, God made that (happen), that’s my dream!” Khelif said moments after the bout.
Throughout the fight, female Algerian fans could be heard cheering her with the zaghrouta, a high-pitched staccato chant.
Khelif said she heard her fans at Roland-Garros.
“I want to thank all the people here,” she said pointing into the stands, “and the people of Algeria to come support me, my coach and Team Algeria.”
All five judges had it 10-9 for Khelif in each round.
After the win, a man in her corner hoisted the fighter onto his shoulders and took Khelif on a victory lap as she held an Algerian flag over her head.
The fighter said she blocked out the outside noise and just concentrated on boxing.
“Yeah I’m very happy for my performance,” she said. “This fight for a win. Amazing. I prepared eight years in USA, in Europe, all over the world for this victory. Olympic championship! Thank you so much!”
Khelif’s gold was celebrated at home in Algeria with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune saying the fighter made all Algerians proud.
“We are all proud of you, Imane, as an Olympic champion,” he said in a statement. “Your victory today belongs to Algeria, and your gold is Algeria’s gold.
Khelif held up her gold medal for the cameras and said this was a culmination of eight years of work.
“Long live Algeria. Algeria deserves more than just a medal,” she said. “I call this a medal of honor. It is a medal of honor. Thank God for everything. I dedicate this to the entire Arab world.”
Khelif and another boxer, featherweight Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei, have been fighting under a cloud in France after the Algerian’s opening victory over Angela Carini, who quit after 46 seconds.
The Italian’s rapid surrender brought to light 2023 allegations made by the Russian-led International Boxing Association which removed those two fighters from a competition in New Delhi last year.
While Khelif was clearly winning, it was no cakewalk. The silver medalist, Yang, used her 5-foot-10 frame to match up well with the 5-10 gold medalist.
Yang was asked if she felt this was a fair fight against another woman. While she didn’t directly answer, Yang clearly refused the chance to make an issue of it, the way Turkish and Bulgarian fighters did in losses to Lin.
“I’m not very aware of what’s happening outside,” Yang said. “My opponent is an exceptional competitor and she performed very well. There are many things I need to learn from her.”
The IBA said it had conducted tests in 2022 and 2023 that raised doubts about the boxers’ gender because of their chromosomes.
The IBA has not released details of the testing. A hastily called press conference by the IBA in Paris on Monday shed little light on the allegation as body president Umar Kremlev answered many questions with rambling tirades against the Olympics which he kept comparing to the sin-filled biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Both the IOC, which has declared Khelif and Lin eligible due to genders on their passports, and USA Boxing have cut ties with the IBA, last year, before much of the sporting world came to know Khelif and Lin.
The IBA is financially supported by Russian state-owned energy corporation Gazprom.
Khelif and Lin are veteran fighters and well-known in the women’s boxing community.
Khelif’s father insists his daughter is clearly a woman, who he raised as a girl. Lin has long said she took up boxing as a little girl, in hopes of protecting her mom from domestic violence.
This topic went as high as the United Nations earlier this week as diplomats from Russia and Algeria verbally sparred over the matter.
Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said men are fighting women in the Olympics which is “absolutely repellant.”
Senior Algerian diplomat Toufik Koudri counter-punched, saying Khelif was born a female, lived the life of a “full-fledged woman” and that there “isn’t a shred of doubt on that matter, except for those who have (a) vague political agenda.”
“She is a living legend. She was the first Algerian boxer to participate in the Olympics and win the most beautiful medal,” the Algerian Olympic Committee wrote on Facebook.
David K. Li and Sam Brock reported from Paris while Alfred Arian reported from New York.
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