Imane Khelif’s father breaks silence amid ongoing Olympic controversy around gender
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Imane Khelif
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images/Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Imane Khelif
The father of Olympian Imane Khelif has spoken out amid the ongoing gender eligibility row plaguing his daughter.
25-year-old Khelif, from Algeria, initially found herself at the centre of a gender argument following her 46-second boxing bout against Angela Carini, 25.
The Italian withdrew from the match and later explained that Khelif's blows had ‘hurt too much’ to continue.
Critics were quick to bring public attention to Khelif’s previous disqualification from the World Boxing Championships, sparking a social media meltdown.
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In 2023, the boxer, alongside fellow Olympic competitor Lin Yu-Ting, 28, could not participate in the competition.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) claimed this was because they’d failed ‘to meet the necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors’.
Ahead of the welterweight’s semi-final match against Janjaem Suwannapheng, 23, today (6 August), Khelif’s father Amar has revealed it’s an ‘honour’ to have her as his daughter.
Speaking to Reuters, he began: “Having such a daughter is an honour because she is a champion, she honoured me and I encourage her and I hope she will get the medal in Paris.
“Imane is a little girl that has loved sport since she was six years old."
Amar has also clarified the gender of Khelif - who is guaranteed at least a bronze medal at the summer games - by producing a ‘family official document’.
“May 2, 1999, Imane Khelif, female. It is written here you can read it, this document doesn't lie,” he said.
Khelif herself has also spoken out about the controversy.
Following her quarter-final bout against Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori, 23, she spoke to SNTV and asked viewers to ‘stop bullying’ sportspeople.
“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects,” she said in Arabic.
“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
Khelif added that she hoped her family hadn’t been ‘affected deeply’ by the gender eligibility row and that she hopes the crisis with ‘culminate in a gold medal’.
“That would be the best response,” she said.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also released a statement regarding both Khelif and Lin.
Spokesperson Mark Adams slammed the IBA for ‘carting off’ the pair during the World Boxing Championships purely because there were ‘suspicions against them’.
“I need hardly say if we start acting on suspicions against every athlete of whatever, then we go down a very bad route,” he told the Associated Press.
“There’s a whole range of reasons why we won’t deal with this. Partly confidentiality. Partly medical issues. Partly that there was no basis for the test in the first place. And partly data-sharing of this is also highly against the rules, international rules.”
The IOC cut ties with the now-banned IBA in 2019 due to alleged corruption inside the company.
Tyla has previously contacted the International Boxing Association for further comment.