Footage has emerged of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who was allowed to fight women at the Paris Olympics despite failing a sex test, landing blows so brutal that her defeated Mexican opponent said: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way in the my 13 years old. years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.”
Brianda Tamara received fierce blows to the head throughout her fight against Khelif, which had to be stopped in the third round, in Guadalajara, in December 2022. “When I fought her I felt very lost”, she reflected. “Her blows hurt me a lot. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely and it was good that they finally noticed.”
There is now intense scrutiny over Khelif’s first scheduled fight in Paris against Italian Angela Carini on Thursday. The International Olympic Committee claims that both Lin Yu-Ting from Algeria and Taiwan can participate, saying they met eligibility requirements and hold women’s passports.
This is contrary to the position taken by the International Boxing Association, which disqualified Khelif from last year’s world championship in Delhi, while also stripping Lin of his bronze medal due to a “biochemical test for gender eligibility”.
Khelif was kicked out of the event just hours before her gold medal fight against Yang Liu of China, with the official Olympic notes on the 25-year-old stating that “her elevated testosterone levels did not meet eligibility criteria”.
According to the Algerian Olympic Committee, she was disqualified for “medical reasons”. Khelif herself said at the time: “There are some countries that didn’t want Algeria to win a gold medal. This is a conspiracy, a big conspiracy, and we will not be silent about it.”
Umar Kremlin, president of the International Boxing Association, said tests showed that Khelif and Lin had “XY chromosomes.”
He claimed that his organization had “discovered athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pose as women.” The IBA has since been stripped of the right to organize Olympic boxing competitions due to concerns over its governance, with the IOC imposing more lenient eligibility rules.
Barry McGuigan, the former world featherweight champion, described it as “shocking” that Khelif and Lin “have actually managed to get this far”.
“What is happening?” asked the Northern Irishman.
So far, the IOC has been unable to provide satisfactory answers.
