Imane Khelif’s extraordinary Olympic Games still has one round left to run. At a wild, steamy, increasingly unbound Roland Garros, Algeria’s fifth seed outclassed Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand to win the women’s 66kg semi-final bout and set up a final against Yang Liu of China on Friday.
This was a startling event in so many ways, in large part here because of its exuberantly Algerian tone. The snaking queue outside Roland Garros in the hours before this evening round of Olympic boxing had been heavily stacked with Algerian flags and football shirts. Centre court, reconfigured into a breathtaking boxing area, was similarly decked with the red and green.
This has been one effect of the controversy around Khelif. The Algerian diaspora in Paris has come out in numbers to support her, a reflection of the way the events of the past two weeks have been received back home.
It has been another extraordinary week in this story, with Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei guaranteed a medal of some sort having both reached their semi-finals (two bronzes are awarded in boxing, in keeping with the sport’s most basic code that anyone who gets in the ring deserves something just for doing so).
Both boxers have been at the centre of Paris 2024’s most fevered and bruising extra-sport story, which was aggravated further this week by the chaotic short-notice press conference staged in a Paris hotel by the International Boxing Federation.
It was of course the IBA that banned both Khelif and Lin from competing during the world championships last year on the basis of swab and blood tests that suggested neither was qualified to take part in the women’s event.
Khelif and Suwannapheng entered the arena at 10.25pm, by which time the Algerian flags were everywhere, rippling and waving in every corner. Suwannapheng got plenty of cheers from the Thai crowd. Khelif emerged to ear-mangling whistles, the Algerian supporters dancing in the aisles and chanting: “Imane, Imane!”
There was an odd circularity to this Olympic semi-final – of course, because this is now high drama – as Khelif versus Suwannapheng was in effect a rematch of the world championship bout, won by Khelif, that preceded her disqualification.
Suwannapheng had beaten the reigning gold medallist and favourite Busenaz Surmeneli on her way here. She has blistering foot speed and was in and out of range to good effect early on, coming in behind Khelif’s jab.
Khelif was the taller boxer with a greater reach. She likes to keep her distance and tag her opponent with the jab or come in with the long straight right. It was messy at times, a clash of methods, all flailing arms and bumping in the clinches, but Khelif took the opening round 10-9 on every card.
Roland Garros has taken over from the North Paris Arena business park complex as the venue for these finals, which is a bit like moving from a cheerful old clanky National League ground to the Augusta National Golf Club. It is a wonderful space, every soft touch surface beautifully turned, the roof creating a boisterous echo chamber, but also a sweat-box effect that left trainers furiously fanning their charges with towels between rounds.
Suwannapheng needed to get closer in the second, but struggled to evade the jab. Khelif reeled off a couple of powerful uppercuts and never really came under enough pressure, taking it by the same score.
Suwannapheng had no choice but to up her work rate and get closer in the third, but by now Roland Garros was in a state of pre‑celebratory uproar, every combination cheered. A standing count for Suwannapheng shortly before the end drew a great whooshing wave of noise. As the decision was announced Khelif wagged her finger and strolled around the ring as the stands re-erupted, then returned to do a knees-up style dance of joy.
Afterwards she was once again assailed by the gathered global media in surely one of the most fevered Olympic boxing mixed zones ever staged, stopping this time to talk to Algerian TV, looking calm, unmarked and delighted to have progressed this far. For reasons that stretch far beyond the distribution of a featherweight gold medal, that final really is going to be quite an event.
