Imane Khelif fires cryptic message after IOC boss’ statement on women’s sports

Controversial gold medalist Imane Khelif fired off a terse message on Monday as the new Olympics chief called for “protecting” the female category to “ensure fairness.”

Khelif, who faced questions about whether the fighter was eligible to compete in the women’s category during the 2024 Paris Olympics, fired off a quote commonly attributed to Winston Churchill after new International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry took her stance on protecting women. 

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Imane Khelif of Team Algeria celebrates victory against Anna Luca Hamori of Team Hungary after the Women’s 66kg Quarter-final round match on day eight of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at North Paris Arena on Aug. 3, 2024 in Paris. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” Khelif captioned a post on the boxer’s Instagram Stories.

Coventry said Thursday that she had “overwhelming support” to make moves to protect the women’s category in the Olympics amid transgender athlete controversies that have plagued girls’ and women’s sports in the United States, Britain and Australia.

“We understand that there’ll be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said. 

“But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”

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Imane Khelif of Team Algeria, pictured here, competes against Anna Luca Hamori of Team Hungary in the women’s 66kg quarter-final boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the North Paris Arena, in Villepinte, France, on Aug. 3, 2024. (Mehmet Murat Onel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The new president added that there is “unanimous” support for coming to an agreement about how to amend the policy and suggested the IOC may take inspiration from the World Athletics policy, which restricts biological males from competing in women’s sports if those males have gone through male puberty. 

“It was very clear from the membership the discussion around this has to be done with medical and scientific research at the core, so we are looking at the facts and the nuances and the inclusion of the international federations that have done so much of this work … having a seat at table and sharing with us because every sport is different,” she said.

“But it was pretty much unanimously felt that the IOC should take a leading role in bringing everyone together to try and find a broad consensus.”

However, Coventry also said any changes likely wouldn’t result in retroactively changing the results of past competitions that featured athletes with gender-eligibility questions. The 2024 Paris Olympics featured two boxers winning gold in the women’s competition, despite previously failing gender-eligibility tests for international competitions.

Team Algeria coach Mohamed Al-Shawa assists Imane Khelif of Team Algeria with her head guard prior to the Women’s 66kg preliminary round match against Angela Carini of Team Italy on day six of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at North Paris Arena on Aug. 1, 2024 in Paris, France. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

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Khelif’s medals would likely be safe even in the face of a medical test published in 3 Wire Sports in June that reignited the gender controversy around the boxer.

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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