he controversy surrounding Olympic boxers Imane Khelif from Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei doesn’t appear to be dying down anytime soon. On Aug 6, Khelif defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand and advanced to the gold-medal round in the women’s welterweight divisions (66kg), where she will face Yang Liu of China. Lin is guaranteed at least a bronze medal after advancing to the semifinal round of the featherweight division; she will fight Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey on Wednesday.
Both competed in the women’s division, despite recent allegations from the International Boxing Association (IBA) that they are not women. Regardless of which color medal either boxer wins in Paris, opinions about gender determination will likely remain one of the legacies of the Paris 2024 Olympics. “I had heard about the news regarding her, but I wasn’t following it closely.
She is a woman, but she is very strong," Suwannapheng said of Khelif after the bout. In the famed Roland-Garros tennis stadium, where one of the courts was reframed with a boxing ring, fans came out in force to support Khelif. Chants of "Imane, Imane, Imane" drowned out the bell at the end of the three rounds, and when the final unanimous decision was announced, Khelif jumped up and down in the ring and pumped her fists.
“What she went through was on a whole other scale,” says Imane Megharbi, an influencer from Algeria. “She was being harassed by international celebrities, which was very sad and .