A lawyer for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif says the gold medal-winning boxer has asked prosecutors in Paris to look into online harassment she faced during the Olympics about her gender and presence at the Games.

The lawyer, Nabil Boudi, said in a statement on Instagram that his firm had filed a complaint with the online hate unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. It was not immediately clear where the complaint would lead. The Associated Press reported Sunday that under French law, it would be up to prosecutors to decide if an investigation is merited and who might be at fault.

Khelif faced a torrent of negative attention on social media after she won her first bout in the 66-kilogram (145-pound) division with an unusually swift stoppage. Her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, quit the bout within 46 seconds after squarely taking some hard punches from Khelif, including one to the nose that left her complaining that she couldn’t properly breathe.

Khelif was assigned female at birth and the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly affirmed her qualifications to compete in a women’s division. But the knockout drew attention to a decision by the International Boxing Association last year to disqualify Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting, from its world championships….

PARIS — Atop her coach’s shoulders, arms in the air, a full house at the main stadium of Roland Garros cheering her on, Imane Khelif celebrated the perfect way to end a trying week.

The Algerian boxer on Friday won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s boxing 66-kilogram (145-pound) division, beating China’s Yang Liu and ending a difficult nine-day stretch that saw her become one of the stories of the Olympics due to accusations over her gender that she described as “bullying.”

For Friday’s final, Khelif came out to a massive roar on Philippe Chatrier Court. Her fight with Yang was the final event of the night, and for the first time in these Olympics, both were facing more equal talents after breezing through their early rounds, each with the size and reach to bother the other.

But it didn’t faze Khelif, who controlled the fight from the opening bell. She won the first round 10-9 on all five scorecards, then landed a big punch early in the second round to briefly daze Yang.

Khelif mostly defended from there, picking moments to throw jabs and avoiding Yang’s increasingly frantic attempts to close the distance. After the second round, it was clear — the gold medal was hers, barring any major errors. She spent the final round avoiding that outcome. No judge…

Her name is Cindy Ngamba and — despite losing in the semifinal bout of the women’s 75-kilogram boxing competition — she is the first ever medalist for the Olympic refugee team.

Going up against Panama’s Atheyna Bylon, Ngamba dropped the first round to the tall southpaw on all five scorecards despite keeping her left foot mostly on the outside of Bylon’s right — a common battle for prime position between opponents with opposing dominant hands. Ngamba came back swinging in the second, earning four of the five judges’ votes.

Bylon regained the edge in the third and final round, but the pendulum swung in Ngamba’s favor when the referee deducted a point from Bylon for persistent holding. Still, Bylon scrappily secured the chance to fight for a gold medal in the split call.

“Just the wrong decision in my eyes. Those type of mistakes, in the judges hands, in my opinion, are life-changing,” NBC commentator and American boxer Mikaela Mayer said. “There’s no going back, there’s no reversing that decision, but that was the wrong decision.”

Bylon fights China’s Qian Li on Saturday at Roland-Garros for Panama’s first medal of the Paris Games, while Ngamba secures bronze in the women’s 75-kilogram division. The Olympics do not hold specific bronze medal bouts…

Boxer Cindy Ngamba clinched the first medal of any kind for the Olympic refugee team Sunday at North Paris Arena, guaranteeing herself at least a bronze with a win against France’s Davina Michel in the women’s 75-kilogram quarterfinals.

The Olympics do not hold bronze medal bouts in boxing, so Ngamba will receive a medal win or lose in the semifinals. She fights Panama’s Atheyna Bibeichi Bylon next on Thursday, when boxing moves to Roland Garros.

“It means the world to me to be the first refugee team member to win a medal,” Ngamba said. “I’m just human, like any other refugee. There are refugees all around the world.”

Ngamba, 25, was born in Cameroon and moved to the United Kingdom when she was 11. Ngamba, who is gay, cannot return home because homosexuality is outlawed in Cameroon. She now lives in Bolton, a town in Greater Manchester, England, and trains with Great Britain boxing.

With her win over Davina Michel (FRA), boxer @CindyNgamba (EOR) has just made history by guaranteeing a first-ever Olympic medal for the IOC @RefugeesOlympic Team! #Paris2024 #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/lmN0fhdqA5

— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) August 4, 2024

Ngamba served as the flag bearer for the refugee team, which was created in 2015 and debuted at the 2016 Rio Games, at the opening…

A ring announcer’s error following a women’s bantamweight championship in Perth, Australia, on Sunday stunned the boxing world as reigning champion Nina Hughes seemingly reclaimed her title then lost it in a matter of seconds.

Hughes was initially announced as the winner over Cherneka Johnson, but her fist-pumping celebration was cut short when the referee brought both women back to the center of the ring. The announcer, Daniel Hennessey, then correctly re-read the results, which placed the Australian fighter Johnson (16-2) on top with a majority decision. Two judges had her winning, 98-92 and 96-94, and the third judge called the bout a draw.

The ring announcer declares the wrong winner in Perth then corrects it pic.twitter.com/ze9Wxt6JaU

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 12, 2024

Johnson said she had mixed emotions about the way the decision was read, but said she deserved to be champion.

“I was pretty disappointed when my name wasn’t called. I was pretty confident that I had won that fight,” Johnson said, adding: “I felt the ref sort of grab my hand, but my hand didn’t get raised. When they came back and they said that they had announced the wrong name, it was like, ‘This is my moment. That was my moment to shine.’”

Hughes (6-1) wrote in a post on her…

Claressa Shields is, without a doubt, the best women’s boxer in the world. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was the first undisputed champion in two different divisions — light middleweight and middleweight — in an era with four belts to win. At 14-0 as a professional and atop all pound-for-pound lists, she can continue doing what she’s doing and cruise into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

But that’s simply not Shields’ style.

She’s always wanted more, from the time she was growing up in Flint, Mich. One medal podium wasn’t good enough, she needed a second. One pro division wasn’t good enough, she needed more belts. One sport wasn’t good enough — she decided to join the Professional Fighters League to compete in mixed martial arts with the hopes of becoming the greatest women’s combat fighter of all time, and in hopes of bigger paydays in an industry where the gaps between men and women are often stark.

On Saturday, she’ll make an even bigger mark in combat sports by fighting Kelsey DeSantis, when they’ll become the first women to fight on a professional mixed martial arts card in Saudi Arabia, according to the PFL.

“It’s going to inspire the women there. It’s going to inspire their culture and their country,” said Shields, who will fight on the…

Saudi Arabia is attempting to rebuild its image and prepare for a world without oil — and sport is a key part of its strategy.

Although other nation-states have exerted influence on global sport in the past, we have never seen anything as comprehensive as Saudi Arabia’s vast investments in a multitude of different sports over the past few years.

Saudi Arabia’s smaller neighbour Qatar hosted the 2022 men’s football World Cup and many other competitions, but Saudi has even more cash to splash and limitless ambitions in doing so. This may be a lifeline for some sports, but for critics, this is all an exercise in sportswashing, a distraction from the country’s terrible human rights record.

As reported by The Athletic, the women’s professional tennis tour is preparing to announce that the season-ending WTA Tour Finals will take place in Saudi Arabia, marking the latest step in the country’s huge investment in elite sport.

So which sports are already receiving Saudi money — and which ones might be next?

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Football

Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought Newcastle United in 2021 after years of legal wrangling. The club has spent over £400million on transfers since the takeover, a figure that would likely be considerably higher were it not for the Premier League’s…

A woman has accused WWE co-founder Vince McMahon, the WWE and former company executive John Laurinaitis of sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and negligence in a lawsuit obtained by The Athletic.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on Thursday and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, sheds more light on the investigations into McMahon’s misconduct, behavior that allegedly included millions in payments to women to keep quiet about their experiences with him. One of those women, Janel Grant, is the plaintiff in this new lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims Grant was introduced by a mutual friend to McMahon in the summer of 2019 amid her familial and financial trouble. McMahon offered her a job at WWE, which quickly became dependent on a sexual relationship with McMahon. Despite her initial pushback, Grant felt coerced into the relationship due to prospective employment and felt very quickly trapped in it, as McMahon warned of damage to her career and reputation if word got out.

“(I)n her years of experience with McMahon, she knew her requests to stop would be ignored at best or used to destroy her career and reputation at worst,” the lawsuit reads.

The relationship, which continued through January 2022, put…

Amanda Serrano was overcome with pure joy. Her face lit up as the scorecards were read and several featherweight championship belts were placed on her right shoulder and waist. She had dominated Danila Ramos en route to a unanimous decision win in October, bolstering her argument for being considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, and a trailblazer.

Serrano’s performance came in the first unified women’s championship fight contested over 12 three-minute rounds in boxing history. Female boxers, until that point, were only able to compete in bouts with 10 (or fewer) rounds at two minutes each.

“I really enjoyed the three minutes,” Serrano said after the fight in Florida. “I was able to set up a little more of my punches, and I think I’m going to continue with the three minutes. I know the women out there, they saw that it’s possible, that we can do it. And me and Danila, we showed that we’re capable. There’s going to be a lot of women out there that are going to say, ‘Yes, they did it. Now I can do it.’”

The sport was changed that night. At least for matchups with WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine championships on the line. Serrano’s WBC belt was not that night, and now the world knows why.

Last week Serrano announced she was vacating…