The Algerian welterweight is one of two boxers competing in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after she was reported to have failed gender eligibility tests.
Amid wild support under the roof of Court Philippe Chatrier – the French tennis venue repurposed for the boxing finals – Khelif dominated her Thai opponent to win by unanimous decision.
The win secured progression to her first Olympic final, having been knocked out in the quarter-finals in Tokyo three years ago.
She will fight Liu Yang of China in the gold-medal bout, bidding to become Algerian’s first boxing gold medalist. Khelif’s Games began with a win against Angela Carini last week – a fight that lasted just 46 seconds before the Italian abandoned saying she “had to preserve” her life.
That sparked widespread debate over the eligibility of Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who was also disqualified by the IBA last year.
The IBA said Khelif had “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out” in its regulations, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the pair had been “suddenly disqualified without any due process”.
The IOC, which suspended the IBA in 2019 because of concerns over its finances, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging, has allowed the pair to compete and strongly backed them.