Imane Khelif calls for end to ‘bullying’ and targets gold medal at Paris Olympics amid gender row | Boxing News

Imane Khelif has called for an end to “bullying” after the Algerian boxer guaranteed herself an Olympic medal amid an ongoing gender row.

Khelif is through to the women’s 66kg semis after beating Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, securing Algeria’s first boxing medal since 2000 and their first in women’s boxing.

She faces Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-finals on Tuesday, but has been in the spotlight since her opening bout due to an eligibility row that has dominated headlines and sparked online abuse.

Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting are both allowed to take part in the Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopting different criteria to the International Boxing Association (IBA) who disqualified both from last year’s World Championships due to the results of an unspecified eligibility test.

“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” Khelif told SNTV in Arabic.

“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.

“I am in contact with my family two days a week. I hope that they weren’t affected deeply. They are worried about me. God willing, this crisis will culminate in a gold medal, and that would be the best response.”

She expressed gratitude to the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, for their continued support.

“I know that the Olympic Committee has done me justice, and I am happy with this remedy because it shows the truth,” she said.

Taiwan’s Lin, 28, will face Turkey’s Esra Yildiz in her semi-final following a unanimous-decision win over Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria in the 57kg category.

Before the scorecards were read out Staneva did a double XX gesture and pointed to herself. The female chromosome is XX. Staneva then appeared to walk past Lin but after the referee announced the decision and lifted Lin’s hand as the winner, Staneva went over and sat on the rope on her opponent’s side and opened the rope for Lin to step out.

Lin said: “I know all of Taiwan’s people are standing behind me and supporting me, and I will carry this energy to the end. Even though I won this match doesn’t mean I can relax, I still need to work hard.”

In a statement released after the fight in support of Lin, the Taiwan Olympic Committee said it was “already clear” that the boxer was eligible for the Paris Olympics on the basis of the IOC’s rules.

“The delegation stands firmly by the athlete with full support and strongly condemns the malicious online abuse and personal attacks and calls for an immediate stop on those behaviours,” it said.

Adams: ‘Utter rubbish’ misinformation must stop

IOC spokesman Mark Adams has called for a stop to the spread of misinformation across social media that has resulted in both athletes facing online abuse.

“We feel these women have been targeted, particularly on social media, they’ve been subject to death threats, we feel strongly about that to remind people this is absolutely not a transgender issue,” Adams told Sky Sports News.

“These women were born as girls, they were registered as female, they have female passports, they have competed for the past six or seven years in senior competitions, they’ve won bouts and lost bouts as women.

“For us it’s important we give them support, particularly at the moment, if anybody would put themselves in the position of those two athletes who are being ridiculed and attacked with death threats, simply because of a test which came from a discredited federation which wanted to change the results of a bout, this is not acceptable.

“This is why we get angry. Of course we want fair bouts, but we also want people to have the right to compete fairly and without harassment.”

Adams reiterated the IOC’s belief that the IBA, who disqualified the two fighters from the World Championships in 2023, should not be trusted.

“They don’t have any authority because there are governance issues, finance issues,” he said. “You only have to look up the president of this organisation, Mr [Umar] Kremlev [IBA president], interesting name and interesting links, you only have to see the videos he is posting, which are explosive and aggressive, to see why they should not be trusted or listened to.

“We suspended them and eventually banned them because they are not good for the sport, they are not in it for the athletes and we need somebody who encourages other people, we need a new international federation.”

Adams has urged for “sensible conversations about a difficult subject” to prevent the abuse of athlete rights and further humiliation caused by misinformation.

He says the IOC has ensured both athletes are being supported amid the row of eligibility.

“Our safeguarding teams have been in touch with both athletes, it’s very tough,” he explained. “Imagine for the Algerian boxer, coming from a more conservative society and having to deal with this global pile-on from people who don’t know facts about something and are saying it’s a man fighting a woman.

“This is utter rubbish and needs to be stopped, we need to discuss the issues like adults. It’s not an easy issue, there isn’t a black and white answer.

“As the president of the IOC said yesterday if somebody can find a medical consensus of what is a man and what is a woman, we are happy to work with them.

“Until then we have conflicting ideas, we have to work with what we have unless everybody wants to go back to sex testing.”

‘I am a woman’ – Khelif emotional as boxers embrace

“There was real respect between the boxers,” said Sky Sports News’ reporter Geraint Hughes. “Before the fight, between every round and at the end, they touched gloves.

“Khelif became very emotional as she was leaving the ring. She went into an area to speak to journalists – she only spoke to one, I understand, and then shouted to another: ‘I am a woman’.”

Speaking afterwards, Hamori said: “I think it was a good fight. I’m so proud of myself and I’m so grateful to be here. This was a very good competition for me, that was my childhood dream. I’m so happy.

“I wish good luck to my opponents and the others in the finals and I’m so thankful for my coaches, the Hungarian team, for my family and for everybody who gave me some support so thank you everyone.”

Khelif’s father speaks out as IOC chief faces press

The father of Khelif defended his daughter ahead of her latest win, telling Sky News: “My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. She’s a strong girl. I raised her to be hard-working and brave. She has a strong will to work and to train.”

IOC president Thomas Bach insisted on Saturday there was “never any doubt” that Khelif and Yu-ting are women.

“Let’s be very clear, we are talking about women’s boxing,” Bach said. “We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman and who have competed for many years as a woman.”