Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will fight for an Olympic gold medal in the women’s welterweight division Friday night amid scrutiny over misconceptions about her gender.
Khelif was victorious over Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng at Roland Garros in her semifinal on Tuesday, and now face China's Liu Yang in the women's 66-kilogram finals Friday at the Paris Olympics.
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Khelif, a two-time Olympian, has already clinched her first Olympic medal, which is also Algeria's first medal in women's boxing (Olympic boxing does not stage bronze-medal bouts, so the losers of both semifinal bouts receive bronze). She needs one more victory to claim only Algeria's second boxing gold medal, following Hocine Soltani in 1996.
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Khelif comfortably won her first two fights in Paris, but the ending of her first bout propelled her into a worldwide divide over gender identity and regulations in sports. Her first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully quit after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from Khelif's punches.
Carini's abandonment of the fight led to comments from the likes of former U.S. President Donald Trump, "Harry Potter" writer J.K. Rowling and others falsely claiming Khelif was a man or transgender.
In an interview with SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, Khelif said the wave of hateful scrutiny she is facing "harms human dignity" and called for an end to bullying athletes.
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The IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, have repeatedly defended the Olympic eligibility of Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.
Khelif and Lin were disqualified by the International Boxing Association in the middle of last year's world championships over what it claimed were failed eligibility tests for the women's competition. The IBA has been banished from the Olympics since before the Tokyo Games, and the body struggled to articulate the reasoning for its decisions on Khelif and Lin at a news conference Monday.
Lin also has clinched a medal and advanced to the Olympic semifinals. She fights Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey in the first bout Wednesday night at Roland Garros.
