Imane Khelif’s Continued Olympic Stint Draws Formal Protest: ‘Unacceptable & Outrageous’

Getty Algeria's Imane Khelif (L) fights against Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori in the women's 66kg quarter-final boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Hungary Boxing Association had enough of the controversy that has rocked the women’s boxing competition in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lajos Berkó, a member of the association’s executive board, told MTI, Hungary’s state news agency, per Associated Press, that they were sending letters of protest to the International Olympic Committee and Hungary Olympic Committee against the controversial Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif.

“I am very sad that there is a scandal and that we have to talk about a topic that is not compatible with sport,” Berkó said before Khelif dominated Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the quarterfinals of the women’s 66-kilogram bout. “This is unacceptable and outrageous.”

Khelif advanced to the semifinals after pouncing Hamori, 5:0, to assure Algeria of at least a bronze medal. Hamori is Hungary’s first female boxer in the Olympics.

Unlike Khelif’s first opponent in Paris, Italy’s Angela Carini, Hamori did not quit.

Before the fight, Hamori said, “I’m not scared. I don’t care about the press story and social media.”

While the Hungary Boxing Association still gave their go-signal for the match, Berkó said they plan to “express our indignation and request that the IOC reconsider its decision, which allowed a competitor into the IOC competition system who was previously banned from the [International Boxing Association’s] world championships.”

Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting are competing in the Olympics after they were disqualified from the 2023 World Boxing Championships for failing an undisclosed eligibility test.

While the IBA deemed the details of the results confidential, IBA President Umar Kremlev was quoted by the Russian news agency, TASS, in 2023, revealing that Khelif and Yu-Ting had XY chromosomes, which are typically found in males, that gave them a competitive advantage over the rest of the field.

Caitlyn Jenner Slams IOC

Caitlyn Jenner, who won the 1976 men’s decathlon as Bruce Jenner, decried the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif to continue fighting in the women’s competition.

“I think the Olympic committee did absolutely the wrong thing by letting [Khelif] compete,” Jenner said on Fox News’ “The Story” on Friday, August 2. “Shame on the IOC for not protecting the integrity of women’s sports, and shame on the IOC for not protecting the safety of women’s sports.

Jenner added the controversy has taken away the spotlight on the other athletes’ accomplishments.

“This issue has hurt the Olympic Games so much. … Everyone’s talking about it,” Jenner said.

“I hate to be so downright rough … but we have to have rules and regulations, and it has to come down to DNA,” Jenner added.

IOC President Hits Back at Critics

IOC President Thomas Bach hit back at their critics and defended Khelif and Yu-Ting.

“Let’s be very clear here: We are talking about women’s boxing,” Bach said, per Associated Press. “We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”

Khelif and Yu-Ting failed to medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman,” Bach added. “And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific-based new definition of who is a woman, and how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman?

“If they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen,” Bach added. “We are ready to look into it, but we will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war.”