All five judges ruled 10-9 in Khelif's favor in each of the three rounds.
Khelif’s victory comes after a fight earlier in August where Khelif’s opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, forfeited just 46 seconds into the first round. Italian coach Emanuele Renzini told reporters after the fight that Carini didn’t want to continue the fight after being punched hard in the nose by Khelif, saying, "After one punch she feel big pain." Khelif won by ABD, meaning "abandoned."
Both Khelif, as well as Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting who is scheduled to fight in the featherweight finals on Saturday, were disqualified from the 2023 world championships by the IBA after officials announced that they had failed their gender eligibility tests. The Russian-led IBA stated at the time that the athletes had "pretended to be women" and had "XY chromosomes."
The IOC withdrew recognition of the IBA in June 2023 over a failure to fulfill conditions set by the IOC in 2021 and installed the Paris Boxing Unit to oversee the sport for the 2024 Olympic Games. USA Boxing terminated its relationship with the IBA in 2023, citing "ongoing failures of IBA leadership."
After Khelif's bout against Carini, the IOC stated that both Khelif and Lin had met the criteria to compete in Paris and stated that both athletes’ passports state that they are women. Both athletes competed at the Tokyo Olympics, with Khelif being eliminated in the quarterfinals and Lin being eliminated in round 16.
“All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations,” the IOC said in a statement.
In a joint statement from the IOC and Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, they said that "Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination," adding that all athletes "participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit. As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport."
Ahead of Khelif's semi-final bout, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach defended the organization’s decision to allow the two athletes to fight. "We have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women," Bach said.
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