Imane Khelif of Algeria created a sensational moment at the Paris 2024 Olympics by winning the gold medal in women's boxing. Making the accomplishment even more glorious was that Khelif had been deprived, on grounds of gender eligibility, from competing in the World Championships just a year ago. She outscored Chinese world champion Yang Liu by a unanimous 5-0 decision in the final of the 66kg category.
This very clear-cut triumph in the welterweight category was a historic milepost in itself: Khelif became the first woman from both Africa and the Arab world to clinch an Olympic boxing gold.
And since the outset, Khelif immediately imposed her will, riding the crest of the momentum through all of the first five rounds. Buoyant and aggressive, with the counter cheers of the full packed Roland Garros, Khelif kept the control of the match. In spite of Yang's endurance to change the tide using her southpaw jab and good combinations, Khelif's non-stop assaults and powerful punches forced Yang to the backfoot.
Yang had been pressing the level of aggression as the fight developed—trying to make up the score difference with Khelif—as her superior skill and tenacity offered no solution. So under the tenacity of Khelif, the superiority was totally apparent during the last round—taking well-calculated risk to get a clean sweep for all five judges' scorecards, culminating in well-deserved victory and sparking jubilant celebrations among her supporters.
That Olympic victory represented more for Khelif than a personal achievement; it carried an intense symbolic charge. It came a year after she was rejected from competing at the World Championships in India because her testosterone level was considered to be too high—a decision that was highly controversial.
Khelif was one of the high-testosterone exclusion few athletes who were the only ones allowed to fight during the women's category of boxing in the Games of Paris for the year 2024. His disqualification during the previous World Championships, organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA), highshadowed his career and was full of on abuse and online threats. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued censure of the harassment, and Khelif issued censure of the bullying that had the potential to destroy lives.
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