Controversial Boxer Imane Khelif Advances To Olympics Semifinal After Defeating Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori

Controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif defeated Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori in the women's welterweight quarterfinal at the Paris Summer Olympics on Saturday.

Khelif won on points by unanimous decision (5-0) and is now guaranteed at least a bronze medal.

Khelif has been at the center of controversy and social media outrage since before the Games began.

The 25-year-old failed a gender test in the past, resulting in disqualification from the Women's World Boxing Championship in March 2023. A series of DNA tests "uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women."

Hamori — the first Hungarian boxer to ever qualify for the Olympics — had downplayed the issue ahead of Saturday's bout.

"I’m not scared," Hamori told reporters. "I don’t care about the press story and social media. If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win."

On Thursday, Khelif needed all of 46 seconds and a couple of landed punches to force opponent, Italy's Angela Carini, to abandon the match in the opening round of the women's boxing tournament. Another athlete who failed a gender test, Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting, defeated Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in the Paris Games on Friday.

Algeria's Imane Khelif defeated Italy's Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in the opening round on Thursday.

(Photo by Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Saturday, IOC President Thomas Bach condemned the criticism directed at the two boxers as "hate speech," saying the IOC "will not take part in a politically motivated cultural war."

"We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women," Bach said. "Some want to own a definition of who is a woman."

IOC Stands By Imane Khelif & Lin Yu-Ting

Following Khelif's victory in Thursday's preliminaries, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a statement making it clear that all fighters in the women's division meet its eligibility requirements.

"Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules," IOC spokesman Mark Adams explained. "They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female."

The IOC says Imane Khelif meets all eligibility requirements to compete in women's events.

(Photo by Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The International Boxing Association (IBA), which disqualified Lin and Khelif from the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships after tests revealed the athletes "had XY chromosomes," followed up the IOC's statement with one of its own.

"IBA remains committed in ensuring competitive fairness in all of our events, we absolutely condemn the inconsistencies in eligibility to compete in the boxing competition held in the Paris Olympic Games 2024," the statement read in part. "To reiterate, both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting post testing, did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events."

Khelif will advance to the welterweight semifinal against Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Lin Yu-Ting takes on Bulgaria's Svetlana Staneva in the featherweight quarterfinal on Sunday.