Sergio Gomez
(CNN) — Algerian boxer Imane Khelif defeated Chinese rival Yang Liu in the 66kg gold medal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday.
Khelif received a warm welcome from the crowd as she entered the ring at Roland Garros for her fourth bout of the Games. Algerian flags fluttered across the arena.
Italian boxer Angela Carini apologizes to Algerian Imane Khelif for how she treated her
In the first round, both fighters started timidly, but Khelif prevailed over her southpaw rival unanimously.
In the second round, the Algerian landed a powerful punch on Yang, who bounced off the ropes in the opening seconds. With the pro-Khelif crowd cheering wildly, the Algerian punished her opponent with a flurry of punches on her way to another victorious round on all the judges’ scorecards.
With a huge lead on the scoreboard, Khelif continued to press Yang in the third and final round. The Chinese woman continued to press, but was unable to overcome Khelif’s defense.
After the final bell rang, the boxers hugged each other in a sign of respect and sportsmanship.
The crowd applauded wildly when it was announced that Khelif had won the gold medal on unanimous points decision.
Khelif did her signature victory dance in the ring and posed for photographers before being carried off on the shoulders of one of her trainers.
Imane Khelif of Algeria punches Angela Carini of Italy during their preliminary round bout of the women’s 66kg at the Paris Olympics on August 2.
Italian boxer Angela Carini apologizes to Algerian Imane Khelif for how she treated her
Khelif had been the focus of worldwide attention after defeating Italian boxer Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in a preliminary bout.
The fight sparked an avalanche of online abuse, with transphobic commentators wrongly calling Khelif a “man” because she had failed a supposed “gender test” run by a now-discredited boxing federation that had been stripped of its ability to run Olympic events. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) took over the sport for the 2024 Games because it decided no international federation was qualified to run it and repeatedly stressed that Khelif met the criteria to compete.
IOC President Thomas Bach was asked Friday whether the organization was prioritizing inclusion over safety by allowing Khelif and Lin to compete.
“It’s not as easy as some in this culture war want to make it out to be,” Bach responded. “These two are women, and they have a right to participate in the women’s competition. And this has nothing to do with inclusion in any way.”
Speaking in Arabic to SNTV, an Associated Press sports video partner, Khelif urged people to “uphold the Olympic principles, according to the Olympic charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes because this has effects, massive effects.”
“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind,” he said, adding that it was not easy to go through what followed his fight with Carini.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif calls for an end to “bullying of all athletes”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams defended Khelif’s participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics in a press conference after the Carini fight, saying Khelif “was born a woman, she was registered as a woman, she lives her life as a woman, she boxes as a woman, she has a woman’s passport.”
The IOC then confirmed that the fight was “not between a man and a woman” and that “scientifically, there is consensus on this.”
Khelif is not the only female boxer receiving extra attention from her presence in Paris. Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting is also in the spotlight after years of amateur competition.
Lin will fight in the women’s 57kg gold medal match on Saturday.
