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Top 3 Combat Sports Stories From The 2024 Olympics
2024 Olympics. Photo via Instagram (@imane_khelif_10) and (@mijainlopez.legenda)
It’s time to say au revoir to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris!
The games have officially drawn to a close, capping off three weeks of athletic triumphs and controversies.
Let’s take a closer look at the top three top stories from the combat sports in the Olympics.
Mijain Lopez wins his fifth gold
Photo via Instagram (@mijainlopez.legenda)
Legendary Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez is the only athlete to win five gold medals in five separate Olympic games. The Cuban won his first Olympic gold in 2008 and achieved a historic fifth consecutive win in the 130-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling division.
As a five-time world Olympic winner, five-time world champion and five-time Pan American Games champion, Lopez is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
What a career!
Imane Khelif wins gold after social media hatestorm
Imane Khelif. Photo via Instagram (@imane_khelif_10)
Algerian welterweight boxer Imane Khelif won gold on Friday as she defeated China’s Yang Liu.
Khelif is by far one of the most talked about athletes in the 2024 Olympics, overcoming a firestorm of hate on social media, where people including sports stars like Olympic boxer Claressa Shields, quickly questioned her gender without having all the facts.
The controversy stems from a decision by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to disqualify her after claiming she had failed two gender eligibility tests in the past two years.
”I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman. I lived a woman. I competed as a woman. There’s no doubt about that,” Khelif said about her participation in the 2024 Olympics.
The Algerian 25-year-old made history as she became the first Arab or African woman to win a boxing gold.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, Khelif recently filed a legal complaint against the social media platform X for harassment.
“The boxer Imane Khelif has decided to begin a new fight, a fight for justice, dignity and honour,” Khelif’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said in a statement.
Tara Babulfath wins bronze after controversial decision
Tara Babulfath. Photo via Instagram
After a bunch of triumphs as a junior, Swedish 18-year-old judoka Tara Babulfath put on a massive performance in her Olympic debut with a sensational bronze medal.
However, Babulfath could just as well have been winning the whole damn thing.
The young Swede lost the semi final against three-time world champion Natsumi Tsunoda after a controversial decision by the judges. The spectators booed the decision and an upset Babulfath protested in vain. The Swedish Team was in fact worried that she was going to be disqualified due to her protests, but Babulfath was finally allowed to compete for the bronze.
“I used my anger from the semifinals and got back, but I didn’t want to cry on TV,” she told SVT Sport after winning the Olympic bronze. ”I just had to win that damn medal.”
Want to read more about 2024 Olympics?
- Swedish Olympic boxer Nebil Ibrahim: “I gave it all in every fight”
- Two-time gold medalist Shields rages against the Olympics: “I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that”