Pregnant Laura Woods reveals she’s received death threats and lost friends over stance on gender row boxer Imane Khelif
LAURA WOODS has admitted to losing friends and receiving death threats over her stance on Imane Khelif.
Khelif, 25, won Olympic gold in the women’s 66kg welterweight boxing in Paris.
The Algerian was cleared to fight at the Games after previously being booted out the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships for failing a gender test.
Ahead of the Olympics, chiefs slammed the IBA’s disqualification as “sudden and arbitrary” and taken “without any due process”, allowing the athlete born a woman to compete.
TV presenter Woods has been outspoken about the issue and praised an article on social media that highlighted concerns about Khelif‘s involvement during the Olympics.
At the time, she said amongst a number of tweets: “Since I replied to this article I’ve had numerous death threats to myself and my unborn child.
“Questions on my own gender (I’m pregnant so guess that clears that one up) calls for my employers to sack me, threats to my home…
“I’ve been called a racist, a bigot and a sexist as well as various insults.
“When there are discrepancies with test results – which could impact the safety of another human being, in an environment that above all else should be fair – questions are quite rightly going to be asked.
“The answers are still unclear, otherwise this topic would be closed.”
Following the release of supposed leaked medical reports that claim Khelif is a “biological man”, Woods took to social media once again today.
She wrote: “Saw A LOT of what was written about me and others for even daring to ask questions about this. I won’t forget that.
“I hope the women who had to face a biological man in the ring and whose concerns were drowned out, now get some sort of justice, but I won’t hold my breath.”
A follower replied: “Hope you haven’t lost friends over it Laura. Well done for sticking to your guns! I hope the young lady can get her medal.
“Then again, why would she want it? Her Olympic dream was ruined from the get go.”
Woods, who is currently pregnant after announcing she is expecting a baby with former Love Island star Adam Collard, responded: “Unfortunately I have.
“I’ve seen their tweets on here about me (repeatedly). On the medal, I don’t think she will get it, which is the biggest travesty, and the fact the IOC allowed this all to happen.”
Olympics gender controversy
THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) stirred up a huge controversy by clearing two women to box who had previously failed a gender test.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified at the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi, India, in March 2023.
Lin Yu-ting was stripped of a bronze medal after failing a gender eligibility test.
Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.
Officials found tests showed they had ‘XY chromosomes’ — which indicates a person is biologically male.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association organised that event but is no longer recognised by the IOC.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived – they competed in Tokyo.
“The federation needs to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness but at the same time there is the ability for everyone to take part that wants to. That is a difficult balance.
“In the end the experts for each sport are the people who work in that. If there is a big advantage that clearly is not acceptable, but that needs to be a decision made at that level.”
Both Khelif and Lin competed at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women Amateur Boxing Championships.
The IOC said all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.
The controversy follows the famous case of Caster Semenya.
South African middle-distance runner Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.
She won gold in the 800m at London 2012 and Rio in 2016 but was unable to compete at Tokyo in 2021 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.