'We couldn't put her with anyone': Spanish Olympic boxing coach says Imane Khelif 'hurt' several women at training camp

A former Olympian and current Spanish boxing coach criticized the inclusion of athletes with allegedly male chromosomes participating in the Olympics.

Rafael Lozano, a former boxer and now national coach for Spain, spoke to Spanish outlet Radio Marca about controversial Olympic boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Both boxers won gold in female categories at the Olympics but were shrouded in controversy for previously having failed gender tests.

Lozano, who is reportedly the last Spanish boxer to win an Olympic medal, said that he had experience training Khelif at the Blume in Madrid, an athletic training center.

'I don't see it as fair; I don't see it as equitable.'

"They were doing a training camp here at the Blume and we couldn't put [Khelif] with anyone. We put her with Jennifer Fernández and it hurt her. Whoever we put her with, [Khelif] hurt her," Lozano said, as translated by Google as well as Brave browser.

The coach then said it seemed more fair when Khelif was matched up against a man.

"We put her with José Quiles and they were [equal]. From my point of view I don't see it as fair,' the coach admitted.

Quiles is a top Spanish boxer who has won two silver medals in international competitions, one in 2022 and another in 2023.

Lozano added that he didn't think Khelif and Lin being in the women's category at the Olympics was "equitable."

"I don't see it as fair; I don't see it as equitable. Everyone can think what they want, but that's how I see it," he concluded.

Khelif won the gold medal in the women's 66kg weight class in Paris without losing a single round in three dominating victories.

However, since the start of the Olympics, two governing bodies in boxing have claimed that Khelif is actually a man.

The International Boxing Association disqualified the boxer at the 2023 world championships. IBA President Umar Kremlev said at the time that Khelif had "XY chromosomes."

Less than a week after the Olympic controversy began, the European vice president of the World Boxing Organization said that Khelif was among several fighters in the female category who were revealed to be men.

"The problem was not with the level of Khelif’s testosterone, because that can be adjusted nowadays, but with the result of the gender test, which clearly revealed that the Algerian boxer is biologically male," the WBO's István Kovács said, per Reduxx.

Since winning the gold, Khelif has filed a legal complaint in France for alleged online harassment surrounding the alleged gender tests.

The complaint was made to Paris' online hate speech office and claimed Khelif was a victim of ""aggravated cyber-harassment."

Khelif's lawyer, Nabil Boudi, said in a statement that there was a "misogynist, racist, and sexist campaign" against his client, NBC News reported.

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