Yahoo Sports Olympic Boxer Who Had Gender Test Issue Wins Fight, Causing Conservative Meltdown
An Algerian boxer who won her first fight in the Olympics after facing a gender test issue caused conservatives to melt down on Thursday.
Imane Khelif, 25, defeated opponent Angela Carini of Italy just 46 seconds into the match in Paris.
Khelif’s win set off a firestorm among conservatives upset over what they incorrectly perceive Khelif’s gender to be. Khelif, who previously competed in the Tokyo Olympics, was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test.
Khelif has always identified as a woman, and there is no evidence suggesting she is transgender or intersex.
Still, that didn’t stop prominent conservatives ― including former President Donald Trump ― from melting down over Khelif’s victory.
“I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS!” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is estranged from his trans daughter, replied to a video of the fight by saying “Kamala supports this…vote accordingly.”
And “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who in recent years has focused primarily on attacking the trans community, also made her displeasure known.
“A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her,” Rowling falsely claimed on social media.
Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly railed against The Daily Mail for correctly referring to Khelif with the pronouns “she/her.”
“You are reporting on a male boxer who fought vs a woman using ‘she/her’ for the man!” Kelly wrote on X. “It’s wrong, confusing & is meant to dull our senses to this gender insanity.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for Khelif’s victory despite Khelif being from Algeria and the Olympics taking place in France.
“Many of us watched in horror as Angela Carini was beaten up by a man in the Olympic boxing match today,” Boebert incorrectly said on social media. “Kamala Harris won’t condemn or speak out against what she saw, because she supports men playing in women’s sports. She’s the embodiment of the radical Left.”
In a statement, the International Olympic Committee defended Khelif, and said her and another athlete’s previous disqualification over a gender test was “sudden and arbitrary” and said the two were disqualified “without any due process.”
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure — especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years,” the statement said. “Such an approach is contrary to good governance.”
After Khelif and Carini exchanged just a few punches during Thursday’s bout, Carini walked away from the match and refused to shake Khelif’s hand. Carini later said she quit because of severe nose pain after being punched, and clarified that her decision wasn’t political.
“I am not here to judge or pass judgment,” Carini told reporters after the match. “If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide.”
Khelif will next face off against Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori on Saturday.
