Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer whose biological sex has been questioned, defeated Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the Olympic women’s welterweight semifinals, a victory that keeps alive the fighter’s gold-medal hopes — and adds more fuel to the ongoing uproar over fairness in female sports.
Khelif, 25, won a unanimous decision Tuesday against the 23-year-old Suwannapheng in the 145-pound division, advancing to the Friday championship match with a guarantee of Olympic silver at minimum.
The win drew further attention to the international debate over the fighter’s gender status and the International Olympic Committee’s eligibility standards for women’s boxing, a story that has dominated the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khelif is one of two athletes competing in Paris despite being disqualified at the 2023 Women’s World Championships in New Delhi, where blood tests showed they failed to meet the gender criteria, according to the International Boxing Association.
The International Olympic Committee has defended the boxers’ participation, saying they complied with the eligibility rules and that “they are women on their passport.”
“Let’s be very clear here,” IOC President Thomas Bach said last weekend. “We are talking about women’s boxing. We have two boxers who were born as women, have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman. And this is the clear definition of a woman.”
The second boxer, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, is scheduled to fight Wednesday in the women’s featherweight bout in the 126-pound weight class.
Complicating the matter is the bad blood between the IOC and IBA. The IOC dropped the association as its boxing authority last year over concerns about finances, governance and judging integrity, replacing it with an ad hoc Paris 2024 unit.
The IOC has insisted that “this is not a transgender issue,” spurring speculation that the fighters may have a Difference of Sexual Development known as 46, XY, which results in ambiguous genitalia at birth but male-level testosterone levels after puberty.
Khelif wins again /11 pic.twitter.com/iv9RfHf87H
— FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) August 6, 2024
Amar Khelif, the fighter’s father, told Reuters that his child is a girl, citing an “official family document” showing the newborn’s sex listed as “female.”
“Having such a daughter is an honor because she is a champion, she honored me and I encourage her and I hope she will get the medal in Paris,” he said. “Imane is a little girl that has loved sport since she was six years old.”
The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee has filed a complaint over online harassment directed at its boxer, while advocates for fairness in women’s sports have blasted the Olympic rules allowing the boxers to compete without resolving the gender questions.
Linda Blade, a Canadian athlete, coach and advocate for single-sex female sports, said the match “reinforces the need for the sex screen.”
“If we cannot screen for biological sex, there is no way to know what is happening or if one of the fighters has a categorial advantage,” she told The Washington Times.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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