Imane Khelif won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s boxing 66-kilogram (145-pound) division on Friday, beating China’s Yang Liu. The feat culminated with her atop her coach’s shoulders celebrating with arms in the air, and the packed house at Roland Garros stadium cheering her on. Though Khelif’s story ends in triumph, her Paris Olympics run has been mired by battles both in and out of the ring — the ones outside revolving around a dispute over her gender.
The controversy was initially sparked after Khelif’s former opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, abandoned the match 46 seconds into its start following several blows to the face by the Algerian boxer. Afterward, one post on social media wrongly claimed Khelif was transgender and assigned male at birth, which led to an online frenzy, with people debating whether or not Khelif should be allowed to box in the women’s category. Khelif is a woman who is not transgender nor does she identify as intersex, according to GLAAD and InterACT and (as the Associated Press reported ) she was assigned female at birth.
But the controversy sparked an online frenzy. Prominent influencers like the controversial Logan Paul falsely claimed that Khelif was a man, and he took to X/Twitter to write, “This is the purest form of evil unfolding right before our eyes. A man was allowed to beat up a woman on a global stage, crushing her life’s dream while fighting for her deceased father.
This delusion must end.” Though Paul la.