Imane Khelif won the boxing gold medal in the 66 kg weight category at the Paris Olympics and issued a bold statement to respond to all her detractors who raised questions about her eligibility to compete in the female category.
At the centre of widespread backlash across social media platforms, Khelif put her best foot forward in the gold medal bout and brought her 'A' game to the table to comprehensively beat the No. two seed Yang Liu 5-0.
The Chinese pugilist failed to counter Khelif's punches and the judges unanimously declared the Algerian the winner of the golden bout.
"This is my dream. Eight years, my dream. I'm Olympic champion, gold medallist. I'm very happy. Eight years, I work," Khelif was quoted as saying by Olympics.com.
"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.
"This gold medal is the best answer to the fierce campaign against me," she added.
"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," she mentioned.
Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng and Chen Nien-chin of Chinese Taipei won bronze in the 66 kg category.
Notably, Khelif and Lin Yu-ting were targeted at the Paris Olympics for competing in the female division as they were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) during the 2023 World Championships, stating that a gender test had ruled them ineligible to contest in the female category.
Interestingly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is using the boxing eligibility yardsticks that were used at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. These eligibility parameters do not include gender testing.
