Algeria’s Khelif wins welterweight gold medal bout

[Pelican Press 0]

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Algeria’s Khelif wins welterweight gold medal bout

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has claimed gold at the Paris Olympics, emerging as a champion from a tumultuous run which included huge scrutiny over her eligibility.

Khelif beat Yang Liu of China 5-0 in the final of the women’s welterweight division on Friday night in Paris, wrapping up the best series of fights of her boxing career with a victory at Roland Garros.

France’s huge Algerian community embraced Khelif but outside of the competition venues she faced extraordinary levels of criticism.

World leaders, major celebrities and others questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she was a man, thrusting her into a larger divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sports.

Khelif said the level of ****** “harms human dignity,” calling for an end to bullying athletes.

She also said a gold medal would be “the best response” to the backlash against her.

Last year, she was disqualified from the world championships by the Russia-controlled International Boxing Association (IBA), which claimed she ******* an eligibility test for the women’s competition.

The IBA, which has been banned from running boxing at the Olympics, has not released further information on the test.

The IOC has repeatedly reaffirmed the two boxers’ right to compete in Paris, with President Thomas Bach personally defending Khelif and fellow two-time Olympian Li Yu-ting of Taiwan, who was also dragged into the debate, calling the criticism “hate speech.”

“We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said.

Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing. She is only the nation’s second boxing gold medalist, joining Hocine Soltani (1996).

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