Imane Khelif's imminent return to boxing likely to reignite gender row
Imane Khelif is preparing to return to competitive women's boxing in Eindhoven next month, threatening another major international controversy in a sport still reeling from the Algerian's gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Promoting this year's Eindhoven Box Cup, Dutch organisers have released a poster declaring: 'Proud that Imane Khelif is there again to defend her title.'
When Khelif, competing in spite of sex tests suggesting the presence of male chromosomes, demolished Angela Carini inside just 46 seconds in Paris last summer, the beaten Italian reflected that she had never been punched so hard, telling her corner 'it's not fair' and saying she feared for her life.
Despite the ongoing scandal, Khelif intends to continue competing as a woman, even pledging to win a second Olympic title in Los Angeles in 2028.
'I see myself as a girl just like any other girl,' Khelif said in a recent interview. 'I was born a girl, raised as a girl, and have lived my entire life as one.'
The 26-year-old has enlisted Kotinos, a Qatari PR company, to reinforce this message. Ahead of the planned Eindhoven comeback, they posted on Instagram: 'When Imane lands a hit, enemy egos are sent straight to the graveyard.'
Khelif's defiance creates major potential problems for World Boxing, which has been provisionally approved by the International Olympic Committee to run the sport at the next Games.
In February, the organisation promised to create a 'fair playing field' for women, insisting that safety was 'absolutely paramount'. But even though several opponents have complained that Khelif has immutable physiological advantages, with Mexico's Brianda Tamara saying after a 2022 bout that she had 'never felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, even in my sparring with men', Boris van der Vorst, World Boxing's president, has still taken no action to ban the fighter from the female category.
Both Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships in Delhi, when the International Boxing Association announced after chromosome testing that they had 'failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in women's competition'.
The IOC, which disputed the credibility of the IBA tests, defined a woman in Paris not by biology but by passport status, enabling Khelif and Lin to win every bout by unanimous decision.
Neither boxer followed through with an appeal against the IBA. While Khelif has made dramatic legal threats against Elon Musk and JK Rowling, accusing them of 'cyberbullying' for their comments on the gender row, the welterweight has still not agreed to a cheek swab test that could resolve the issue beyond doubt.
Women's rights groups are already arranging protests in Eindhoven to condemn Khelif's involvement. But Eric van den Heuvel, a tournament official, was unrepentant. 'She is allowed to box by the IOC,' he told De Telegraaf. 'Who are we to say, 'You are not allowed to participate'? Too bad it is mainly about her. Many more great boxing champions from strong countries come to our event.'
Van der Vorst said: 'We realise that this is a complicated and sensitive issue. We want to deal carefully with both the athletes who are personally affected and with the emotions of the people who have clear opinions about this. We expect to be able to provide more clarity soon.'
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