Controversial Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif Receives Four Votes for AP Female Athlete of the Year

WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark beat several prominent female athletes to receive the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award. However, another athlete who got some votes is getting much attention.

Seventy-four sports journalists voted for the AP Female Athlete of the Year. Clark received 35 votes, and gymnast Simone Biles received 25. The third-place vote-getter was Imane Khelif, the controversial gold medal-winning Algerian Olympic boxer who once failed a gender test.

“The IBA disqualified Khelif, fighting in the 66-kilogram division, and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, fighting in the 57-kilogram division, from fighting in its women’s tournaments in March 2023 on the grounds that they failed unspecified tests to confirm that they fit the governing body’s definition of a woman,” Breitbart’s Frances Martel reports. “IBA President Umar Kremlev told the Russian news agency Tass at the time that Lin and Khelif ‘have XY chromosomes,’ the genetic makeup of a human male.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed Lin and Khelif to compete because it does not use the IBA testing standards, requiring athletes only to present their passports and qualifying them to compete as men or women, depending on how their countries classify them.”

The IOC blasted the IBA, claiming that Khelif and YuTing had been the victims of an unfair testing regimen.

“These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA,” the IOC said during the Summer Games. “Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.”

Both Khelif and Yu-Ting won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Khelif is perhaps best known for beating Italian fighter Angela Carini in only 46 seconds during their Olympic bout.

“I got into the ring to fight,” Carini said after the fight. “I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much. And, so, I said ‘enough.’”

Earlier this month, Carinin won her eighth Italian women’s boxing title, claiming the victory as her “revenge” for the Olympic loss to Khelif.