Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori expressed her pride after competing in a “hard fight” in the women’s 66kg quarter-final, where she lost to Imane Khelif, one of the boxers at the centre of a gender row at the Olympics.
The participation of Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting at Paris 2024 has led to scrutiny after they were disqualified from last year’s World Championships for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
On Thursday, Algeria’s Khelif won her fight in just 46 seconds, with opponent Angela Carini saying afterwards that she had “never felt a punch like this”.
The Italian fighter later apologised for her reaction to abandoning her fight.
Khelif secured her second successive victory in the competition on Saturday after beating Hamori, meaning she is guaranteed a medal and now faces Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-finals on Tuesday evening.
Speaking afterwards, Hamori said: “I’m so proud of myself because I had to fight.
“This was a hard fight, but I think I got to do everything I wanted before the fight. I think it was a good fight, I’m so proud of myself and I’m so grateful to be here.
“This was a very good competition for me, that was my childhood dream. I’m so happy.
“I wish good luck to my opponents and the others in the finals and I’m so thankful for my coaches, the Hungarian team, for my family and for everybody who gave me some support so thank you everyone.”
Cheered on by Algerian fans in the North Paris Arena, Khelif tested her opponent with a series of stinging jabs.
Hamori responded with a few good shots of her own, including a big right hook in the second round, but Khelif remained in control throwing some good body combinations.
The Algerian threw another huge punch to Hamori’s face in the third round before emerging victorious on unanimous decision.
On Friday night the Hungarian Boxing Association had questioned the decision to allow Khelif to compete and called for clarification about her participation.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Balazs Furjes – who is Hungarian – addressed the media post-fight and believes the “consequences” of boxing at Paris 2024 must be evaluated post-Games.
“First of all we Hungarians as proud and old members of the international Olympic family have always been and will always be in favour of fair competition,” he said.
“We are 100 per cent convinced that every match has to be decided on the playing field, this time, this case, in the ring.
“Of course the Paris boxing competitions have their consequences, like every other competitions, these consequences must be carefully evaluated after the Games.”
Chinese Taipei fighter Lin also won her women’s featherweight (-57kg) fight on Friday with a unanimous decision victory over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova. She fights again on Sunday.
Both Lin and Khelif have previously competed in female boxing events for a number of years, but the International Boxing Association (IBA) – which carried out the tests in 2023 – said the duo failed “to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition”.
However, the IBA was stripped as the global governing body for boxing in June last year by the IOC, which is administering the sport in Paris.
IOC President Thomas Bach responds to questions about the women's boxing competition and makes it very clear there was never any doubt on the athletes being women, and that the current online abuse is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/Xvd6SvtmQ5
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) August 3, 2024
In a press conference on Saturday morning, IOC president Thomas Bach addressed the criticism surrounding the two boxers and condemned the “hate speech” the pair have received on social media.
“Let’s be very clear, we are talking about women’s boxing,” Bach said.
“We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman and who have competed for many years as a woman.
“This is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”
