Imane Khelif’s father showed off her birth certificate ahead of her Olympic bout.
Imane Khelif’s father has shown her birth certificate on live TV amid the Olympics gender controversy.
Khelif, who’s guaranteed a medal at the Paris Games, meets Janjam Suwannapheng in tonight’s semi-final for a spot in the gold medal match-up.
Her involvement at this summer’s Olympics has sparked huge debate over whether she should be able to compete following her disqualification from last year’s World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests.
Former Olympian and current world champion boxer Skye Nicolson jumped to the defence of Khelif as she issued a passionate message on social media.
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The Algerian fighter’s father has also defended her participation at the Olympics.
And Omar went one step further by showing her birth certificate on live TV.
Appearing on French TV station BFMTV, he said: “My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. She is a strong girl. I raised her to work hard and be brave. She has a strong will to work and train.”
On Angela Carini pulling out of their contest, he added: “The Italian opponent who fought against her was simply not able to beat my daughter. Because my daughter was stronger and she was too weak.”
Omar then held up her daughter’s birth certificate, explaining: “She is a woman, we have all the evidence, including her birth certificate.”
Image: BFMTV
The boxer aiming for gold also spoke out as she urged her detractors to ‘refrain from bullying’.
The 25-year-old said: “I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects.
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“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
