In the leadup to her Olympic quarterfinal match against Algeria's Imane Khelif, Anna Luca Hamori reposted an image on her Instagram story: a slim woman in boxing gloves squaring up against a horned demon in the ring. Considering the last few days of appalling speculation about Khelif's gender by the world's most vile and sleeveless transvestigators, the message wasn't subtle. It also didn't help her win.
Khelif defeated Hamori in Saturday's fight, with all five judges scoring in her favor. Her semifinal bout will be Tuesday against Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand, but because of yesterday's victory, the Algerian is guaranteed to go home with at least a bronze medal, since both losing semifinalists receive the prize in Olympic boxing.
The win over Hamori clearly provided some catharsis for Khelif, who punched the mat and broke down in tears as she hugged her corner crew. She had to endure days of intense, worldwide fixation with her body and gender after her prior opponent, Angela Carini, abandoned this past Thursday's match in 46 seconds, causing bigots and opportunists around the world to make Khelif part of a trans athlete controversy where there was none. (Carini has since apologized for refusing to shake her opponent's hand.)
The basis of the claim was due to a failed gender eligibility test for Khelif, along with Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, at the 2023 World Championships. The testing was ordered by the International Boxing Association, an organization so corrupt under president Umar Krevlev that the International Olympic Committee banished it from the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. On Sunday, an IOC spokesperson called the IBA's testing “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.” In a press conference Saturday, IOC president Thomas Bach said that the gender qualifications for both boxers were never in doubt for the Olympics.
"What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman," Bach said. "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."
This is why it feels insufficient to refer to what's happening to Khelif a controversy or debate. When someone like J.K. Rowling calls a female boxer a man, she's basing it on her own standards of womanhood—surely the factor of Khelif being Arab plays a part as to what is and isn't considered traditional femininity—and is under the impression that everyone else has to adhere to those standards. She has no insight on this matter, but she's notable and shameless enough to make it seem like a two-sided argument, the two sides being reality versus the whims of a children's book author.
“I want to tell the entire world that I am a female, and I will remain a female,” a tearful Khelif said in a scrum with reporters after her win over Hamori. “I faced difficulties. I dedicate this medal to the world and to all the Arabs, and I tell you, ‘Long live Algeria.’”
