Khelif puts gender row to one side to reach semi-final

Imane Khelif scribbled words onto the canvas with her hand after dropping to her knees in celebration. The Algerian boxer had just overcome Anna Luca Hamori in the Olympics to advance to the women's welterweight semi-finals amid the gender controversy that clouds Paris 2024.

- JACK RATHBORN

Khelif thumped the canvas in delight, relief painted across her face, she then fell into the arms of her adoring team. The tears flowed as she stumbled back to the dressing room. There would be no urge to speak to the media, but this was a moment of joy for the fighter and a ray of light amid a dark episode in the sport’s history.

After all the controversy and intense scrutiny surrounding her performances, her hopes of a gold medal are alive and well. Khelif, alongside Lin Yu-ting, was cleared to compete in women’s boxing in Paris, despite being disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) last year at the World Championships for failing to meet eligibility criteria.

And while many questions are still unanswered, as Hungary’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Balazs Furjes suggested, demanding “consequences” from the Paris boxing competition, this was a brief happy moment for the fighter. The North Paris Arena has been where sport and politics have met, provoking a cloud of toxicity and largely uninformed judgements across social media.