What the last boxer to beat Imane Khelif said after Paris Olympics controversy as new ban issued
The last boxer to beat Imane Khelif spoke out after the 2024 Olympics controversy that engulfed the Algerian who this week has been hit by a new ban in the women's competition.
British boxer Amy Broadhurst was the last person to beat 26-year-old Khelif back in 2022, two years before she won the women's welterweight gold in Paris and made headlines when a debate emerged over her gender and sex.
This was after the year before the Games when Khelif, alongside Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, allegedly failed the International Boxing Association's (IBA) gender eligibility guidelines.
Khelif was cleared to compete at the Paris Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who stripped the IBA of its role as boxing's amateur global governing body 2023 due to concerns over how it was ran.
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The IOC said competitors were allowed to compete in the women's division if their passports said they were female.
But Khelif has now banned from competing in all World Boxing events, unless she can provide proof of being a biological woman - a test she has not submitted to in the past nine months.
Who is Amy Broadhurst?
The 28-year-old is an amateur boxer, who competed for Team GB at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
She switched allegiance from Ireland to Great Britain as she set her sights on achieving her Olympic dreams after she was not selected for the Olympic qualifiers by Ireland.
She previously fought and beat Khelif in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships.
What did Broadhurst say about the Khelif controversy?
In 2024, Broadhurst took to X (formerly Twitter) to address those who said Khelif had 'cheated'. She said: "Have had a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif.
"Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born and that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been [beaten] by nine females before says it all."
Broadhurst was later forced to issue another statement after she was targeted by trolls. On Instagram, she added: "This is the last I’m going to speak on this situation because it’s a crazy situation.
"IBA released the statement that two boxers failed a gender test over a year ago. That’s all well and good but where are the results? They haven’t been published yet so people are just believing what’s been said. Bare in mind IBA were banned from having anything to do with the Olympics so what a brilliant time for them to kick up a storm. During the Olympic Games.
"I do not agree with male vs female. I never will because it’s wrong. But the abuse this person has received in the last 24 hours without any real facts or proof is so wrong! Please keep in mind if your child was going through something like this what would you do.
"Wait for facts, wait for the results to become known and then make you opinion but stop the bullying."
Where is Broadhurst now?
In an interview with The Irish Times, she said her dream is still to compete at the Olympics.
But for now, she has just welcomed a baby boy in to the world in late May.
Taking to Instagram to announce the little lad, called Luca, she wrote: "Our beautiful baby boy is finally here! He couldn’t be more perfect! We’re so in love."
James Taylor