Boxer Imane Khelif advances to gold-medal bout with another victory amid gender misconceptions

PARIS (AP) — Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria superior to the gold-medal bout within the girls’s welterweight division on the Paris Olympics on Tuesday evening, transferring one win away from what she calls the perfect response to the worldwide scrutiny she has confronted over misconceptions about her gender.

With yet another victory, Khelif would win Algeria’s second boxing gold medal and its first in girls’s boxing.

Khelif defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand 5:0 within the semifinals at Roland Garros, the place the gang roared for her and chanted her title repeatedly throughout her three-round battle. Khelif has received three consecutive bouts in Paris, and she is going to win both a gold or a silver medal when she completes the event on Friday towards Yang Liu of China.

Khelif has thrived contained in the ring in Paris amid criticism and stigmatization outdoors of it. The difficulty has stemmed from the Olympic-banished Worldwide Boxing Affiliation’s choice to disqualify her and fellow Paris medalist Lin Yu-ting of Chinese language Taipei from the world championships final 12 months for allegedly failing an eligibility take a look at.

The controversy has change into one of many largest tales of the Paris Olympics, however it isn’t inflicting any adverse results on her performances within the ring.

“I don’t care about that,” Khelif mentioned via an interpreter. “I want to be prepared and present an excellent commonplace, present my expertise, as a result of I need to entertain everybody.”

Khelif had already clinched Algeria’s first medal in girls’s boxing earlier than she stepped into the ring to rousing roars at Courtroom Philippe Chatrier. She then managed her bout with Suwannapheng, who took a standing 8-count late within the third after absorbing a sequence of punches.

“I had heard concerning the information concerning her, however I wasn’t following it carefully,” Suwannapheng mentioned. “She is a girl, however she may be very robust.”

Khelif has received each spherical on each choose’s card in her two fights which have gone the space in Paris. She has made an important event run of her worldwide profession whereas beneath probably the most strain she has ever confronted.

“I’m very blissful,” Khelif mentioned. “I’ve labored eight years for these Olympics, and I’m very happy with this second. I want to thank the assist from folks again residence.”

The ending of Khelif’s first bout in Paris propelled her into the middle of a worldwide divide over gender identification and security laws in sports activities. Her first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully stop after simply 46 seconds, saying she was in an excessive amount of ache from Khelif’s punches.

Carini’s abandonment of the battle led to feedback from the likes of former U.S. President Donald Trump, “Harry Potter” author J.Ok. Rowling and others falsely claiming Khelif was a person or transgender. Carini later apologized for her choice.

In an interview Sunday with SNTV, a sports activities video companion of The Related Press, Khelif mentioned the wave of hateful scrutiny she is going through “harms human dignity” and known as for an finish to bullying athletes.

Khelif additionally mentioned she felt the “greatest response” to the uproar round her could be to win a gold medal — and now she’s one win away.

After sharing a hug with Suwannapheng and holding open the ropes for her opponent in a conventional boxing gesture of sportsmanship, Khelif celebrated by working furiously in place whereas pumping her fists as the gang roared for her once more. The celebration was extra joyous than her cathartic end to her quarterfinal victory over Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, when she slammed her palm on the canvas as she teared up.

Khelif acquired her post-fight medical examine and was headed out of the Roland Garros area when she was mobbed by followers close to the exit. They hugged Khelif, demanded selfies and waved Algerian flags whereas she made her manner backstage.

Khelif acquired cheers that echoed via the famed tennis area from the second she entered to face Suwannapheng. Roland Garros welcomed a distinguished turnout from Algerian followers voicing their nationwide pleasure in a boxer whose adverse highlight has been taken fairly personally in her nation.

Each fighters got here out aggressively, buying and selling punches from distance. Khelif was extra correct whereas profitable the primary spherical on all 5 playing cards, and she or he repeated the efficiency within the second.

The battle bought extra bodily within the third, with Suwannapheng pushing ahead to make a comeback. The bout was stopped for a standing 8-count late within the third when Suwannapheng absorbed just a few head punches in succession, though Suwannapheng appeared to shrug as if it wasn’t essential — as is commonly the case in Olympic boxing, the place referees can cease a bout for comparatively minor causes.

“I attempted to make use of my velocity, however my opponent was simply too robust,” Suwannapheng mentioned.

The 25-year-old Khelif is on the perfect run of her newbie profession on the Olympics. She has carried out solidly on the worldwide degree and even received some regional tournaments, however Khelif has by no means been a dominant fighter on the world stage till her two robust performances — and 46 seconds of straightforward work towards a 3rd — to achieve the ultimate in Paris.

The IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, have repeatedly defended the Olympic eligibility of Khelif and Lin whereas condemning the IBA as incompetent and biased.

Khelif and Lin have been disqualified by the IBA in the midst of final 12 months’s world championships over what it claimed have been failed eligibility exams for the ladies’s competitors. The IBA has been banished from the Olympics since earlier than the Tokyo Video games, and the physique struggled to articulate the reasoning for its choices on Khelif and Lin at a information convention Monday.

Lin additionally has clinched a medal and superior to the Olympic semifinals. She fights Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey on Wednesday evening.

Algeria’s Olympic group has reacted forcefully to the criticism and adverse consideration round Khelif, and the fan turnout in Roland Garros mirrored the seriousness with which the accusations have been acquired in her residence nation and in its French diaspora.

Chinese language Taipei has reacted with equal condemnation of the IBA’s claims and the worldwide swirl of scrutiny. Sports activities officers on Tuesday mentioned they’re contemplating authorized motion towards the IBA after sending a letter protesting “the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation’s continued publication of false info, obscuring the details, and trying to intrude with the traditional conduct of the occasion whatever the rights and pursuits of athletes.”

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