Paris 2024 Olympics: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif one fist away from gold

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is one victory away from ending her tumultuous Paris Olympics with a gold medal around her neck - a potential prize she has called the best response to the wave of online abuse she has faced over misconceptions about her gender.

Imane Khelif faces China's Yang Liu on Friday night in the women's welterweight final at Roland Garros. The Algerian has not lost a round on the judges' card in her first three fights in Paris, putting together the most dominant run of her boxing career while facing intense scrutiny.

Imane Khelif was disqualified from last year's world championships by the Russian -dominated International Boxing Association , which claims she failed an obscure eligibility test for women's competition.

Last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took the unprecedented step of permanently banning the IBA from the Olympics , after years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency . The IOC called the arbitrary sex tests the governing body imposed on Imane Khelif “irredeemably flawed .”

The IBA did not help its case this week, during a heated press conference in which its leaders contradicted themselves about the tests and refused to answer basic questions about them, citing the Algerian Olympic committee's privacy concerns.

Disinformation

The IOC has repeatedly reaffirmed the Algerian's right to compete in Paris, with President Thomas Bach personally defending Khelif while describing criticism as "hate speech" .

"We have a boxer who was born as a woman, raised as a woman, has a passport as a woman and who fought for many years as a woman ," Bach said.

That hasn't stopped the international outcry over misconceptions about the boxer, amplified by Russian disinformation networks , but it hasn't slowed her down either. Khelif has dominated her three fights, but she faces her biggest test yet in Yang, the 2023 world champion and second seed in her weight class.

Khelif told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, that the wave of hate she has received “undermines human dignity” and she called for an end to the bullying of athletes. She also said a gold medal would be “the best response” to the criticism she has received.

The Parisian crowds, however, have embraced Khelif, who has heard nothing but cheers during her fights. A huge contingent of flag-waving Algerian fans saluted and serenaded Khelif throughout her semi-final victory Tuesday night, and she has become a hometown heroine in her North African country.

Olympic medal

Khelif has already won Algeria's first Olympic medal in women's boxing . She will try to become her country's second boxing gold medalist, after Hocine Soltani (1996).

The gold medal bout was the culmination of Imane Khelif's nine days of fighting in an Olympic tournament that began with a bizarre event. Her first opponent, Italy's Angela Carini, gave up the fight after just 46 seconds, saying she was in too much pain from her punches.

The case, already in the making, had suddenly taken on international proportions, with former US President Donald Trump and "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling launching criticisms and false speculations about the competition between men and women in sports. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally visited Angela Carini to support her and question Imane Khelif's eligibility.

Angela Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Imane Khelif. Italian newspaper La Stampa described Carini's state of mind in the days leading up to the fight, describing the pressure from inside and outside her team to avoid the fight, given the growing speculation about Imane Khelif's status.

The IBA then offered to pay the winner's bonuses to Angela Carini and the Italian Boxing Federation , despite the fight being abandoned. Both the Italian federation and Carini refused the money from the IBA, which voluntarily paid the bonuses to all the Paris winners and their teams, despite it having nothing to do with the Olympics.