An Algerian welterweight boxer who
failed a gender eligibility test at last year's world
championships and who caused controversy at the Paris Olympics
after Italy's Angela Carini pulled out a few seconds into their
last 16 bout saying she feared for her life after taking two
powerful punches said after winning the gold Friday night that
she had won as a woman.
The defeat to Imane Khelif, 25, who is reportedly biologically
male but has female physical attributes, and has lost to nine
women in the past, led Premier Giorgia Meloni to tell Carini she
would one day find success in a "fair" fight.
"I qualified in my own right to participate in these Games,"
said the hyperandrogynous boxer after beating Chinese Liu Yang
on points in the final at Roland Garros.
"I am a woman like any other. I was born a woman. I lived as a
woman. I competed as a woman, and there is no doubt about that."
Speaking to the BBC, she said that with her gold she sent a
"unique message": that her "dignity and honour are above all
else".
She said her victory podium photo was "the best photo of my
life".
She added: "I don't know why there has been so much hatred
against me".
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that Khelif
is a woman, and Paris crowds rallied to her after she was
initially criticised following the Carini bout.
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