'I am very sure she is a woman' - Imane Khelif's coach speaks out
Video: Imane Khelif's 'best friend' and team-mate gatecrashes shambolic press conference to 'start demonstration' amid Olympic boxing gender row
Imane Khelif's team-mate gatecrashed the press conference hosted by the International Boxing Association to defend her 'best friend' on Monday.
The boxer has been in the eye of a storm this Olympic Games, insisting she is a woman after the IBA disqualified her from last year's World Championships.
Umar Kremlev, the IBA's Russian chief, has repeated that Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting are 'men' but the organisation - which has been discredited by the International Olympic Committee - has never divulged their test results.
A shambolic two-hour press conference revealed few answers while Kremlev's translator struggled to keep up with his rant and the BBC walked out in protest.
Part-way through the meeting, two members of Algeria's Olympic team – including boxer Roumaysa Boualam - came in to protest.
Imane Khelif's team-mate gatecrashed the press conference hosted by the International Boxing Association to defend her 'best friend' on Monday.
The boxer has been in the eye of a storm this Olympic Games, insisting she is a woman after the IBA disqualified her from last year's World Championships.
Umar Kremlev, the IBA's Russian chief, has repeated that Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting are 'men' but the organisation - which has been discredited by the International Olympic Committee - has never divulged their test results.
A shambolic two-hour press conference revealed few answers while Kremlev's translator struggled to keep up with his rant and the BBC walked out in protest.
Part-way through the meeting, two members of Algeria's Olympic team – including boxer Roumaysa Boualam - came in to protest.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I am very sure, I am very sure, even about the alleged actions of the previous union,
00:11I don't know what to say, listen.
00:19What do you think of Iman? I know Farouk, he loves Iman.
00:23This is something that, if you or any other girl says that you are not like her,
00:30how do you expect her to react?
00:32If you ask her in her head, she will ask you in her head.
00:36And she will say to him, why me?
00:39Why her?
00:41It was a calculation.
00:43First, first, and this blow, it was a calculation.
00:47Omar was trying to get Iman, he wanted to be with the CEO.
00:53And the CEO, thank God, did not agree to this.
00:56And I gave them a lesson in ethics, and I gave them a lesson in sports.
01:01And the head of the union, Tom Asbach, and his medical team,
01:09stood with Iman and said, no, I am with you.