Iman Khalif won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 66kg boxing category on Friday, defeating China's Yang Liu. Iman crowned the achievement by celebrating on her coach's shoulders and raising her arms in the air, as the packed Roland Garros stadium cheered her on.
Although Khalif’s story ended in victory, her Paris Olympics career was marred by battles inside and outside the ring—the latter of which centered around a dispute over her gender. The dispute first erupted after Khalif’s former opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, walked out of the bout 46 seconds into the match after several blows from the Algerian.
Then, a social media post falsely claimed that Khalifa was transgender and assigned male at birth, which led to an online frenzy, with people debating whether or not Khalifa should be allowed to box in the women's division.
Khalif is a woman who is not transgender and does not identify as intersex, according to GLAAD and InterACT, and (as the Associated Press reported) was assigned female at birth. But the controversy has sent the internet into a frenzy.
Prominent influencers such as the controversial Logan Paul have falsely claimed that Khalif is a man, writing on Twitter: “This is the purest form of evil unfolding before our eyes. A man was allowed to beat a woman on a world stage, crushing her lifelong dream while fighting for her deceased father. This delusion must end.”
Although Paul later backtracked on his statement, writing “sorry” and admitting to spreading false information, other influential figures such as JK Rowling and Elon Musk were among the prominent names who condemned the Olympics for allowing Khalifa to compete in the women’s boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games.
Khalif recently told SNTV, AP’s sports video partner, that her family is worried about her. “God willing, this crisis will be crowned with a gold medal, and that would be the best response,” she said in an interview originally conducted in Arabic. “I am sending a message to all the people of the world to support the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, and to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has implications, enormous implications.”
According to NBC News, Khalif won by unanimous decision. A large Algerian crowd at Roland Garros cheered her on with chants of “Alice Iman” and “1, 2, 3 Algeria!”
“I am very happy, God has made this happen, this is my dream!” Khalif said moments after the match. “I would like to thank all the people here, the Algerian people for coming to support me, my coach and the Algerian team,” she added, pointing to the stands.
The New York Times reported that all five judges scored Khalifa 10-9 in each round.
