ALGERIAN boxer Imane Khelife’s dad has launched a passionate defence of his daughter.
The Olympic medal hopeful made international headlines when Italian opponent Angela Carini quit just 46 seconds into their bout.
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It emerged that Khelife, 25, was one of two athletes who were disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
Female boxers and women’s rights campaigners have spoken out in support of Carini, 25.
But Khelife’s dad Amar is urging her to silence her critics and win gold for her country.
He said: “The attacks against her are immoral, it is not fair.
“Imane is a little girl that has loved sport since she was six-years-old, she used to play football.
“These critics and rumours aim to destabilize Imane, they don’t want her to be the champion of the world.
“I tell her prove them wrong in the ring and I hope that she will honour Algeria and Arabic countries and win the gold medal.
“She is our role model, and we want to be like her and honour Algeria and Tiaret.”
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Amar produced an official document from May 2, 1999, stating that Khelife was born a female.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who also failed a gender eligibility test, won against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan yesterday.
Two-time Olympic champion boxer Nicola Adams and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been among the critics of organisers for allowing the two to compete.
Sex Matters director of campaigns Fiona McAnena blasted the International Olympic Committee.
She said: “It’s grossly unfair that at the pinnacle of her sporting career, Italian boxer Angela Carini had to concede for her own safety.
“The look of sheer pain and devastation in her face at that moment should be enough to end the absurd and dangerous spectacle of men in women’s sport once and for all.
“People are rightly outraged, and the IOC should be ashamed, but they seem to be shameless as this is their policy in action.
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This is a more complicated case than the barrage of shameful transgender scandals which have engulfed women’s sport in recent years.
Khelif reportedly has a condition called Swyer Syndrome which means she has some female reproductive organs but also much higher levels of testosterone than women.
As a result, she has a superior physicality to females, which can be seen by her tall, powerful frame.
In other words, she has an unfair advantage.
And that’s why there’s been such a furious response, led by JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and Martina Navratilova, to the footage of Carini quitting after being smashed in the face.
The obvious, indisputable, medical, and scientific, truth is that someone born with male biology of any kind has an obvious physical advantage over biological females.
That’s why we keep the sexes apart in the Olympics.
Otherwise, women would barely win a single medal.
To pretend otherwise is to be either utterly deluded or wilfully dishonest.
“Male advantage used against women makes nearly every sport unfair, and some sports unsafe, including boxing. This is still being played out in many sports worldwide.”
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams had defended the decision, saying: “I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.”
Carini quit her bout in floods of tears, telling her corner “it’s not fair.
But she has since apologised to Khelife, who fights Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori in the women’s 66kg quarter-finals this afternoon.
She told Gazzetta dello Sport: “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
On refusing to shake hands after the contest, she added: “It wasn’t something I intended to do… actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
Olympics gender controversy
THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) stirred up a huge controversy by clearing two women to box who had previously failed a gender test.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified at the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi, India, in March 2023.
Lin Yu-ting was stripped of a bronze medal after failing a gender eligibility test.
Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.
Officials found tests showed they had ‘XY chromosomes’ — which indicates a person is biologically male.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association organised that event but is no longer recognised by the IOC.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived – they competed in Tokyo.
“The federation needs to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness but at the same time there is the ability for everyone to take part that wants to. That is a difficult balance.
“In the end the experts for each sport are the people who work in that. If there is a big advantage that clearly is not acceptable, but that needs to be a decision made at that level.”
Both Khelif and Lin competed at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women Amateur Boxing Championships.
The IOC said all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.
The controversy follows the famous case of Caster Semenya.
South African middle-distance runner Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.
She won gold in the 800m at London 2012 and Rio in 2016 but was unable to compete at Tokyo in 2021 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.