She destroyed it and didn’t break a sweat. Iman Khelif is already one step away from Olympic gold
August 7, 2024, 00:20 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Scandals do not prevent the Algerian from crushing her rivals.
On August 6, the next fights were held in Paris as part of the boxing tournament for the 2024 Olympic Games. Of course, the main attention was focused, interestingly enough, on the fight between women in the category up to 66 kg.
Iman Khelif, representing Algeria, became the most scandalous boxer of these Olympics. Everyone already knows the story of how she was disqualified after winning the World Championship last year because she did not pass the “gender” test – it was discovered that she had XY chromosomes. Despite this, Khelif was allowed to participate in the Games and immediately became the main favorite in her weight category. The Algerian athlete overcomes all the hype surrounding her person and confidently confronts all her rivals. In the round of 16, Iman defeated Italian Angela Carini, who after 46 seconds refused to continue the fight. Then Hungarian Anna Hamori confidently passed.
In the semi-finals, Khelif had to face Thai athlete Janjie Suwannapeng. She reached the round of 16 against Mbabi Brigitta, and in the quarter-finals she faced Turkish boxer Sürmeneli Busenaz. By the way, she and Khelif had already met at the same ill-fated world championships, and then Iman won by unanimous decision. However, the result was later corrected to “No contest.” The second meeting of the athletes promised to be more heated.
The two most scandalous figures of the Olympic Games are already in medals:
“I can’t win, he’s a man.” Scandalous Helif and Yuting guaranteed Olympic medals
Khelif started working as number one and put quite a bit of force into her punches. Iman’s punches were also hard and almost every attack landed with a precise blow. It didn’t work much for Suwannapeng. She aimed for the body, but couldn’t find the distance. Khelif, on the contrary, felt very comfortable and broke through her opponent’s defense with single blows.
The Thai boxer started with very aggressive attacks in the second round. Janji literally flew forward, but that was not enough. Somewhere Khelif left the trajectory of the attack, somewhere he met it harshly and slowed down the pace. This somewhat annoyed Suwannapeng and slowed down, allowing Iman to argue the conditions. The Algerian athlete took advantage of this and easily took the second round after the first. The final segment was already a formality, but in it Khelif looked much better. Janja landed some good punches and tried to turn the tide of the match. All in vain. Iman even scored a knockdown at the end. The rules of amateur boxing in this regard are very different from those of professional boxing, but still.
Khelif eliminated Suwannapeng without a chance and qualified for the final of the Olympic Games. So far, Iman simply does not notice her rivals and crushes them all in a row. But Janji found the strength to shake Helif’s hand, even though other opponents did not. Then the Algerian athlete has the final and is already one step away from gold.
