Gold medalist Algeria's Imane Khelif kisses her medal for the women's 66 kg final boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 9, in Paris, France.John Locher/The Associated Press
The Cuban-born trainer of boxer Imane Khelif says he has no doubt that the Algerian is female and that the gold medal she won in Paris was a blessing from God.
Ms. Khelif, 25, and Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting, 28, who both won their weight classes at the Olympics, have faced relentless questioning about their gender and whether they should be allowed to fight women. The controversy became a global talking point during the Games and both fighters were attacked on social media, even though the International Olympic Committee says they have always been women.
Pedro Diaz, who runs a boxing centre in Miami, trained Ms. Khelif for 18 months in preparation for the Olympics and he was in her corner for every bout in Paris.
“I will tell the world, Imane was born a woman, she grew up as a woman,” Mr. Diaz said through a Spanish interpreter in an interview on Monday. “Everybody has the right to their opinion. But everyone should have the duty to investigate the facts so they can have informed opinions.”
He added that Ms. Khelif has fought against women for nearly a decade, often with mixed results, and that she finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics. Mr. Diaz said he wouldn’t risk his reputation in the boxing world by coaching a fighter who was claiming to be a woman.
“What surprised me, and concerned me, was why is this now happening in the Olympics, at this time?” he asked.
He said that her improvement since Tokyo can be attributed to better training and moving up a weight class – from 60 kg to 66 kg – which increased her strength. Her critics “disregarded her technical skills and her abilities inside the ring,” Mr. Diaz said. “That technical level of skill was able to get her to win every single round of every single fight at the Olympics.”
The claims originated with the International Boxing Association, which abruptly disqualified Ms. Khelif and Ms. Lin in the midst of the 2023 world championships after blood tests allegedly showed the two had male XY chromosomes. The IBA said it tested the fighters a year earlier, but that those results were inconclusive.
The IBA has not released any test results. It’s also not recognized by the International Olympic Committee and nearly three dozen national federations, including Boxing Canada, because of long-standing concerns about corruption and its ties to Russian energy giant Gazprom.
As a result, the IOC has run the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. The gender issue resurfaced at the start of the Paris Games when the IBA criticized the IOC for allowing the two boxers to compete.
Mr. Diaz said that during the Games, Ms. Khelif and everyone around her was attacked online. He tried to shield her from the abuse by taking away her phone, but he said the criticism “affected her very much.”
He denied reports that she had bodyguards in the athletes’ village or any extra protection. “Everybody had the best bodyguard in the world, God. And the motivation of winning the gold medal.”
Mr. Diaz had something of an extra edge for Ms. Khelif’s gold-medal bout in the women’s welterweight division against China’s Yang Liu last Friday.
The 32-year-old Chinese fighter was considered by many experts as the favourite. She posed a particular challenge as a left-handed boxer for Ms. Khelif, who is right-handed. Ms. Yang also had two Cuban trainers in her corner whom Mr. Diaz knew well.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif wins boxing gold in unanimous decision against China’s Yang Liu
He’d spent 17 years working with fighters in Cuba and he coached 20 Olympic champions. He left the country in 2007 for Montreal and then headed to Miami where he launched Mundo Boxing Inc. After leaving Cuba, he trained a fighter from the Dominican Republic who also won a gold medal.
Before Friday’s fight, Mr. Diaz anticipated that the Cubans would encourage Ms. Yang to come out swinging in order to silence the crowd, which was packed with Algerian supporters. He instructed Ms. Khelif to keep her distance and provoke Ms. Yang into making erratic punches. The strategy worked so well that by the final round, Ms. Khelif knew she was far ahead in points and started dancing in the ring.
Ms. Khelif let out her frustrations about the controversy after the fight. ”I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman. I lived as a woman. I competed as a woman. There’s no doubt about that,” she told reporters.
She also gave credit to Mr. Diaz: “Pedro Diaz, he has 21 Olympic medals. Today, he has 22. He also deserves this medal.”
Mr. Diaz won’t comment on the IBA’s testing or its dispute with the IOC. He’s just proud of how far Ms. Khelif has come, from a poor village in Algeria to Olympic champion. “I’m so satisfied with this because the gold medal will change her life,” he said. “This is a great blessing from God.”