Boxer Imane Khelif, after gender controversy and gold at the Olympic Games, undergoes an extreme makeover

The Olympic champion Imane Khelif she gave herself a makeover to show off her gold medal won at the Paris Olympics.

Khelif’s participation in women’s Olympic boxing sparked discussion during the Games after Italian fighter Angela Carini abandoned her fight after just 46 seconds.

Khelif, along with Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by the IBA after failing a gender eligibility test.

New image

Imane was the victim of a hate and misinformation campaign on social media, which portrayed her as “a man who fights women” after her opponent retired in the first round in the first minute. After her Olympic title, Imane

Khelif defended herself, describing herself as a “strong woman” endowed with “special powers” and turning to the French courts.

Now, the athlete is trending on social media for her makeover for a publication by Beauty Code, a cosmetology, health and beauty institute.

In a video posted on Instagram, Khelif can be seen first clapping her red gloves towards the camera, before appearing in a floral dress with her face made up and smiling.

The publication clarifies that it is not a question of Imane wanting to fit into traditional beauty standards.

“She didn’t have time to waste in beauty salons or shopping to get her medal. She never felt the need to conform to those standards to prove her existence,” says the text accompanying the video.

“By changing her appearance, she did not seek to change her appearance to fit into the molds the world wants to trap us in. Her message is much deeper: clothing does not make the monk and appearance does not reveal the essence of a person. She can be feminine and elegant when she wants, but in the ring she does not need ornaments or high heels. She only needs strategy, strength and punch, which is the essence of her personality,” says the post, which has more than 740 thousand likes.

Khelif’s demand

“Boxer Imane Khelif, who has just won the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, has decided to fight a new battle: that of justice, dignity and honour,” her lawyer Nabil Boudi said in a statement on Saturday, announcing that he had filed the complaint the day before.

According to the American magazine Variety, billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social network X (formerly Twitter) and British writer JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter saga, are named in the complaint. The French national service for combating online hatred has opened the investigation for “cyberbullying due to gender, public insult due to gender, public provocation to discrimination and public insult due to origin”.

SPORTS CPN AFP

More sports news