PARIS — The only relevant issue that remains unresolved in the week-long brouhaha around Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is whether she will go home with a gold medal Friday night.
Every other player in this story has had their say, and so now it’s time for a full accounting of where everybody stands.
The Algerian people? They’re with Khelif. They showed up by the thousands for her semifinal bout Tuesday night. They roared to the rafters when she entered the ring against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, and they shook their green-and-white flags when she landed a right-handed blow in the third round that put an exclamation point on her victory.
The International Boxing Association? After shaking up these Olympics with accusations that Khelif failed a “sex test” at its 2023 world championships, the IBA’s clownish news conference here Monday served only to make its leadership – and particularly its Russian leader Umar Kremlev – look incompetent, vindictive and corrupt. Any relevance the IBA had in the world of amateur boxing has been pushed further to the fringes.
Imane Khelif (ALG) celebrates defeating Janjaem Suwannapheng (THA) in a women’s 66kg bronze medal bout during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade Roland Garros. (Michael Madrid, USA TODAY Sports)
The International Olympic Committee? It’s been steadfast in refusing to give the IBA and its accusations even a millimeter of credibility as they pertain to what is happening with these Olympics. Khelif was eligible to compete here under IOC rules, any IBA testing is irrelevant to that reality, and backtracking on that in any way would open a Pandora’s box to an Olympics where women are being hauled into doctor’s offices because their competitors think they look too much like a man.
The online rage mob? They thought, when Khelif connected with a vicious punch to her first-round opponent’s face, that they finally had the thing they’ve been warning about: A man pretending to be a woman inflicting physical harm to a real woman in a sporting event. When it became clear that every bit of evidence in Khelif’s life and backstory points to her being born a woman, they shifted their obsession to chromosomes and hormones. Five minutes after these Olympics end, they will forget about Khelif and assuredly move on to something else.
And Khelif? As difficult emotionally as the last few days likely have been, she appears to have moved on, too. This time, there was no crying. She celebrated her Tuesday victory with smiles and fist pumps. She stopped in the media zone and answered a few questions in Arabic. Though the translations were a bit sketchy, she purportedly said that she did not care about the controversy. The net effect of all this, regardless of whether she wins gold or silver, is that she is going to return as one of the most famous and beloved athletes in the Arab world.
“I am very happy,” she said, according to the official transcript. “I’ve worked eight years for these Olympics, and I am very proud of this moment. I would like to thank the support from people back home.”
And that’s going to be where the story ends.
