Imane Khelif is an Olympic Gold medalist. On Friday, Khelif — the Algerian boxer who was accused of being a man after her opponent quit because she hit her hard — earned gold after defeating China’s Yang Liu. “I’m very happy.
For eight years, this has been my dream, and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medalist,” Khelif said, after winning by unanimous decision, per USA Today . “I’ve worked for eight years, no sleep, eight years tired. Now I’m the Olympic champion.
” Khelif won the first two rounds of the fight with Liu in the women’s welterweight division. According to the Associated Press , Khelif had previously said that she didn’t “care about that” controversy surrounding her gender and was instead focused on fighting. She won all four of her Olympic bouts.
“I want to tell the entire world that I am a female, and I will remain a female,” she said over the weekend. Last week, social media was set ablaze after false allegations that Khelif was secretly a transgender woman who had infiltrated the women’s category of the games. The allegations came about after her Italian opponent Angela Carini withdrew less than a minute after the fight began, saying, “I have never been hit so hard in my life.
” Carini later said she “wanted to apologize” to Khelif, adding, “All this controversy makes me sad.” Elon Musk posted multiple times on X about the match between the two women, agreeing that “men don’t belong in women’s sports.�.