Paris Olympics 2024: 'Meaningless...,' Algeria's Imane Khelif reacts after winning boxing gold amid gender row

Algeria boxer Image Khelif won the gold in women's welterweight category on Friday (Aug 9) at the Paris Olympics 2024 and delivered a strong message to her critics.

It is to be noted that Khelif has been at the centre of gender-row controversy at the ongoing games after Italian boxer Angela Carini quit the the bout against the Algerian.

Carini quit46 seconds into their preliminary round bout, saying she couldn't take Khelif's punches and that it felt hard. Khelif, ever since, has been subject to much hate on the social media which questioned her gender.

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“As for whether I qualify or not, whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media,” Khelif said after the victory.

“I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I lived a woman, I competed as a woman, there’s no doubt about that. [The detractors] are enemies of success, that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks,” she added.

Khelif was disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Boxing World Championship last year for failing to meet eligibility criteria. The IBA, however, isn't recognised by the International Olympic Association which termed Khelif's disqualification as arbitrary.

“As for the IBA, since 2018 I have been boxing under their umbrella. They know me very well, they know what I’m capable of, they know how I’ve developed over the years but now they are not recognised any more. They hate me and I don’t know why. I send them a single message: with this gold medal, my dignity, my honour is above everything else,” Khelif said about IBA's rule.

Khelif also acknowledged that the social media attacks targeted towards her were bad and she hoped that the thought of people have changed now.

“My honour is intact now. But the attacks that I heard in social media were extremely bad and they are meaningless and they impact the dignity of people and I think that now people’s thinking has changed," said the Algerian boxer.

Khelif is the first women boxer to win a gold for Algeria and first overall since 1996