Olympic champion Imane Khelif has responed to Donald Trump regarding his controversial remarks and vows to retain her title in Los Angeles.
Imane Khelif has hit back at the US President Donald Trump over his controversial remarks that she’s transgender.
The Algerian boxer said she won’t be intimidated by Trump and is looking forward to defending her Olympics title in three year’s time.
The 25-year-old who was born in Aïn Sidi Ali, Laghouat Province, won gold amid controversy and huge media attention at the 2024 Paris Olympics and has set her sights on retaining her crown at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
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As reported by The Guardian, the 2022 Light Welterweight African champion, told off Trump saying she’s not transgender and his remarks does not faze her in her quest for glory in the US.
“I will give you a straightforward answer: the US President issued a decision related to transgender policies in America. I am not transgender. This does not concern me, and it does not intimidate me. That is my response.”
Khelif’s triumph in Paris, along with that of Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting, sparked a gender eligibility debate. High-profile figures such as Trump, Elon Musk and JK Rowling weighed in.
Khelif, who launched a cyber-harassment suit in August that named both Musk and Rowling, revealed she was deeply affected mentally by the major media campaign surrounding her. She said her mother was attending hospital almost daily as her family shared the brunt of the attacks.
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The boxing events in Paris for the 2024 SOlympics were managed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Paris 2024 Boxing Unit. The IOC cleared Khelif to compete in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event.
While the IOC does not test athletes for gender, it stated that all athletes competing in Paris comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulation, and that Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport”
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Later, the IOC confirmed receiving the letter from the International Boxing Association (IBA) in June 2023, and stated that “from the conception of the test, to how the test was shared with us, to how the tests have become public, is so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it”.
Seeded fifth in the women’s 66 kg (welterweight) event, Khelif defeated Hungary’s Luca Hámori in the quarterfinals on August 3. She then defeated Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semifinals three days later, guaranteeing her at least a silver medal in the event. On August 9, she beat Yang Liu of China in the final to win the gold medal.
Khelif became Algeria’s first female gold medalist in boxing, as well as the country’s first boxer of any gender to win a medal since Mohamed Allalou in 2000 and the first to win a gold medal since Hocine Soltani in 1996.
