An Irish boxer who previously fought and beat Algeria's Imane Khelif has spoken out on the controversy that has erupted at the 2024 Paris Olympics concerning the north African's previously failed gender eligibility tests.
Khelif, 25, found her way in to the quarter finals of the women's boxing 66kg competition at the Paris Games after her opponent, Italy's Angela Carini, withdrew mid-bout.
Carini threw in the towel just 46 seconds in to the round of 16 fight, saying she had 'never been hit so hard' in her life.
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The Italian has been left with a suspected broken nose, with her telling the BBC: "I wasn’t able to finish the match, I felt a strong pain to my nose and I said [to myself] for the experience that I have and the maturity as a woman that I have, I said I hope my nation won’t take it badly, I hope my dad won’t take it badly – but I stopped, I said stop for myself."
The 25-year-old, from Naples, had tried to continue after asking for a timeout, only to call it a day. She left the ring in floods of tears.
Controversy has since surrounded the occasion, given that Khelif was last year banned from competing by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
But now a boxer who beat Khelif back in 2022 has come to her defence.
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Amy Broadhurst, an Irish boxer who competed for Team GB in the Paris Olympics, had previously fought and won against Khelif in the final of the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) after Khelif's victory against Carini, Broadhurst wrote: "Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif.
"Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’.
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"I thinks it’s the way she was born and that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been [beaten] by nine females before says it all."
Khelif's boxing record shows she has suffered nine losses in 50 fights. The Algerian has never identified as male, transgender, or intersex.
Khelif had been preparing to compete for gold in the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India, only for her to fail a gender eligibility test to compete in the women's competition, according to organisers.
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IBA president, Umar Kremlev, said the DNA test showed Khelif to have the male XY chromosomes, as opposed to the XX that you find in females.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the disqualification was due to elevated levels of testosterone.
Given that the IBA doesn't run Olympic events, the IOC confirmed that Khelif had proven her ability to compete in the women's game.
A statement this week said: "All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations."
Topics: Boxing, Olympics, Sport, UK News, World News, Imane Khelif
Tom Earnshaw