Algeria’s Imane Khelif opens up after winning Olympic gold: ‘I was born a woman and I have lived as a woman’

Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who was thrust into the centre of a gender dispute at the Paris Games, said she was born a woman and has been living as such, after winning the welterweight gold medal at the Olympics on Friday.

“I am a woman like any woman. I was born a woman and I have lived as a woman but there are enemies to success and they can’t digest my success,” Khelif said in the press conference.

Khelif defeated Yang Liu of China 5:0 Friday in front of a passionate crowd that chanted her name throughout the three-round bout.

After her unanimous win, Khelif jumped into her coaches’ arms, one of them putting her on his shoulders and carrying her in a victory lap as she pumped her fists and grabbed an Algerian flag from the crowd.

Algeria’s Imane Khelif, left, fights China’s Yang Liu in their women’s 66 kg final boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP)

Fans have embraced Khelif in Paris even as she faced an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who have questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she was a man.

Khelif, who won by unanimous decision, is the first Algerian woman to earn an Olympic boxing title and the first boxer from her country to claim gold since Hocine Soltani at Atlanta 1996. Women’s boxing has been in the Olympics since London 2012.

“This is my dream. Eight years, my dream. I’m Olympic champion, gold medallist. I’m very happy. Eight years, I work,” Khelif, 25, said.

“Eight years, no sleep. Eight years, tired. Now I’m Olympic champion. I’m very happy. I want to thank all the people come to support me. People, Algeria, and all the people, Paris.

Gold medalist Algeria’s Imane Khelif poses during a medals ceremony for the women’s 66 kg final boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP)

“This gold medal is the best answer to the fierce campaign against me.”

Her defeated opponent Yang said: “I’m happy for her. I respect everybody and I will even learn from her (boxing wise).”

Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand and Taiwan’s Chen Nien-chin were awarded bronze.

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Khelif and double world champion Lin were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the 2023 World Championships, with the body saying at a press conference during the Paris Games that a gender test had ruled them ineligible.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is using boxing eligibility rules in Paris that were applied at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics and which do not include gender testing.

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