WNBA phenom Caitlin Clark beat out several prominent female athletes to win the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award. However, another player who received votes is attracting a lot of attention.
74 sports journalists voted for the AP Female Athlete of the Year. Clark received 35 votes and gymnast Simone Biles received 25 votes. The third-place vote went to Imane Kherif, the controversial gold medal-winning Algerian Olympic boxer who once failed a gender test.
“The IBA has ordered Kerif, who competes in the 66kg weight class, and Lin Yuting, a Taiwanese athlete who competes in the 57kg weight class, on the grounds that they failed unspecified tests to confirm that: They have been disqualified from competing in the women's tournament in March 2023. They meet the governing body's definition of women,” Breitbart's Frances Martel reports. “IBA President Umar Kremlev” said Russian news agency Tass reported that Lin and Kerif “have XY chromosomes,” the genetic structure of human males.
“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not use the IBA testing standards, only requires athletes to present their passports, and qualifies as male or female depending on each country's classification. and allowed Kerif to participate.
The IOC blamed the IBA, saying Kerif and Yuting were victims of an unfair testing system.
“These two athletes became victims of sudden and arbitrary decisions by the IBA” during the Summer Games, the IOC said. “Towards the end of the 2023 IBA World Championship, they were suddenly disqualified without due process.”
Kerif and Yutin won gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kerif is perhaps best known for defeating Italian fighter Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in an Olympic match.
After the match, Carini said, “I went into the ring to fight.” “I didn't give up, but that one punch hurt too much. So I said, 'Enough is enough.'”
Earlier this month, Kalinin won her eighth Italian women's boxing title, claiming the victory was “revenge” for her loss to Kerif at the Olympics.
