New Delhi: Paris Olympics 2024 is turning out to be a hotbed of controversies. Earlier, in the men’s football tournament, the Morocco vs Argentina game was stalled after fans invaded the pitch to disrupt the game. The game resumed closed doors 2 hrs later and ended in favour of Morocco (2-1).
Now, yet another controversy seems to grip the Olympics as Algerian boxer Imane Khelif finds herself in the middle of a “Gender Scandal”. The controversy started when Italian boxer Angela Carini decided to abandon her bout after just 46 seconds!
The official clarification given by Angela was that she was scared for her life after getting the first blow from Imane Khelif. Although she had to relinquish her medal prospects tearfully, Angela was fearful about the outcome of the match and relinquished the match.
Antony is competing in the Olympics Women’s Boxing during the off-season to pursue his favourite hobby. pic.twitter.com/ymHSVui35S
— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) August 1, 2024
Who is Imane Khelif?
Imane Khelif is an Algerian boxer who participates in the ight welterweight and welterweight categories. Khelif has been the source of intense online backlash after her alleged gender fluidity case sparked off an online agitation against her. According to the popular opinion, the Algerian boxer is allegedly a ‘biological man’ but identifies herself as a ‘trans-woman’.
This spewed out a venomous hate towards her after she managed to punch out her opponent Angela Carini from Italy. Incidentally, this is not the first time Imane finds herself in this mess. In 2023 during the World Boxing Championships, Khelif was barred from taking part in the competition due to this gender fluidity complication.
Isn’t it interesting how at the 2020 Olympics, when Imane Khelif lost to Kellie Harrington 🇮🇪 in the quarterfinals, literally no one accused her of being a man?
It’s almost as if brain dead right wing morons will hope on any conspiracy theory train pic.twitter.com/jH290S4L4K
— Algeria FC (@Algeria_FC) August 1, 2024
On that occasion, International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev said, “…According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes…” Khelif was shunned away from the Internet sphere. Now, a year later the same cycle seems to unfold yet again.
IOC gives official clarification!
The IOC was shredded to bits as people were questioning whether Khelif was eligible in the women’s category or not. Many international personalities who have been the champion of rights of the trans people such as J.K. Rowling, Richard Dawkins, and Elon Musk criticised the decision of IOC to allow her.
However, the official spokesperson of IOC Mark Adams stated that her passport addressed Khelif as ‘female’ which automatically allows her to compete in the female categories. The official statement from IOC that came was “They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”
