Anna Luca Hamori, Imane Khelif's next Olympic opponent, attacks Algerian boxer on social media
While some figures in media have walked back their outrage or concerns about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif competing in the women’s Olympic boxing tournament, her next opponent — Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori — has gone on the offensive, reposting vitriol-filled Instagram stories and posting her own TikTok decrying having to face Khelif.
Outrage was first sparked when Khelif’s previous opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, withdrew and forfeited her match against Khelif after 46 seconds. Carini’s emotional postgame remarks were then used as ammunition for posters on social media and writers to decry that the Italian was forced to face, what many of the critics said, without any factual proof, was a man. Khelif is not transgender, and has identified as a woman since birth. Her passport — the document used to determine her eligibility — reflects as much.
The IOC issued a statement confirming Khelif is eligible to compete and Carini even apologized to Khelif for how her emotional post match remarks were weaponized. But none of this has stopped Hamori from reposting hateful rhetoric toward her next opponent.
Along with reposting an Instagram story seemingly depicting Khelif as some sort of muscled, horned animal in the ring, Hamori reposted other stories that continued to — wrongly — claim that Khelif is not a woman and used a Hungarian slur that closely translates to “half breed” and is used most commonly to describe dogs or other animals in a negative connotation. One of the posts that Hamori shared also referred to Khelif as a “monster.”
Hamori has since shut down much of her social media presence after the posts were discovered.
In a TikTok that Hamori also posted, she wrongly cited an International Boxing Association test that was used to disqualify Khelif from the 2023 World Championships, claiming that Khelif is biologically male. The IBA — which the International Olympic Committee has cut ties with due to corruption and lack of transparency — has provided little, if any, detail on the 2023 testing that was used to disqualify Khelif, only saying that it discovered she had XY chromosome. And the presence of XY chromosomes in cisgender women is a known medical phenomena, called Swyer syndrome.
Hamori, in her TikTok, also repeatedly misgenders Khelif, implying that the Algerian women’s boxer — who had competed for years without incident prior to the 2023 disqualification — is not a woman, despite little if any concrete evidence to suggest as much.
Hamori has also apparently shut down the comments on her TikTok account, too.
Khelif and Hamori are schedule to face off in the ring just after 11:20 a.m. EST on Saturday, Aug. 3.
IOC issued statement in support of Khelif’s participation
The IOC addressed the concerns in a lengthy statement on Thursday.
“Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination,” the statement began. “All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU) … . As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.”
The IOC statement also addressed Khelif’s disqualification at the 2023 championships and why that doesn’t preclude her from competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.
These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing”.
The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.
Such an approach is contrary to good governance.
Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence.IOC statement on boxing qualifications
IOC statement on Imane Khelif’s participation in 2024 Paris Olympics
And the IOC closed the message with a plea to adopt a more uniform standard across boxing federations ahead of the next summer Olympics, set for Los Angeles in 2028.
“The IOC has made it clear that it needs National Boxing Federations to reach a consensus around a new International Federation in order for boxing to be included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games LA28,” the statement said.