OLYMPIC GAMES | BOXING
Imane Khelif vs Yang Liu: Date, time, how to watch Paris 2024 boxing final on TV, stream online
Algerian Khelif faces China’s Liu today, Friday August 9, in the Olympic gold-medal bout of the women’s 66kg boxing event.
Imane Khelif, the female boxer at the centre of controversy over gender eligibility at the 2024 Summer Olympics, will fight for gold in the women’s 66kg event when she faces China’s Yang Liu in the final at Stade Roland Garros.
Khelif, 25, reached the gold-medal bout with a unanimous-decision victory over Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semi-finals on Tuesday, while Yang overcame Chinese Taipei’s Chen Nien Chin with a 4-1 split-decision win.
When is Imane Khelif vs Yang Liu?
Khelif and Yang will meet in the women’s 66kg gold-medal bout today, Friday August 9, in a clash that is scheduled to begin at 4:51pm ET/1:51pm PT.
How can I watch Imane Khelif vs Yang Liu?
Viewers in the United States will be able to watch the gold-medal bout on the streaming service Peacock. The fight is not being broadcast live on any TV channels.
What is the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif?
Together with Lin Yu-ting, a boxer representing Chinese Taipei in the women’s 57kg competition, Khelif has come under international scrutiny after being falsely accused of being a transgender athlete.
The controversy flared up when Italian boxer Angela Carini withdrew from her round-of-16 bout with Khelif after just 46 seconds, complaining that the Algerian’s punches were too painful. “My face and nose were hurting […],” Carini told the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, per NBC. “I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch.”
The accusations against Khelf and Lin stem from a decision by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to ban the pair from the 2023 Women’s Boxing Championships, after the governing body claimed they had failed unspecified gender eligibility tests.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended Khelif and Lin’s right to compete in the women’s boxing event in Paris. In a statement, the IOC described the ruling by the IBA, which in 2023 was removed as the organiser of Olympic boxing over allegations of corruption, as “sudden and arbitrary”.
Speaking in the wake of the Khelif and Lin controversy, IOC president Thomas Bach told reporters: “We have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women.” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said: “Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.”