Caitlin Clark was named AP Female Athlete of the Year without much competition, but one vote-getter was the cause of much controversy over the summer.
A group of 74 Associated Press sportswriters and their members voted to award the award. Clark received 35 votes, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was second with 25.
But Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif came third, earning four votes.
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Imane Khelif of team Algeria celebrates victory against Anna Luca Hamori of team Hungary after the women’s 66 kg quarter-final round match on the eighth day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the North Paris Arena on August 3, 2024 in Paris, France. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Khelif qualified for the Paris Olympics, but her gender was questioned following a disqualification from the 2023 championships before a gold medal bout over gender eligibility issues.
IBA president Umar Kremlev said the boxer had “XY chromosomes,” which are associated with biological males.
One boxer, Angela Carini, lost her fight against Khelif in Paris, saying that “one punch hurt too much.”
Khelif won gold in Paris and was not the only boxer to win a women’s gold who has been disqualified for failing gender eligibility tests. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting also won gold in another women’s weight class in Paris, sparking similar outrage.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended to the end the inclusion of Khelif and Yu-ting in the women’s events.
Imane Khelif of Algeria, left, fights against Liu Yang of China in the women’s gold medal match at the Paris 2024 Games. (Sebastian Kahnert/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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“These two athletes were victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process,” the IOC said during the games.
Khelif later won gold. Khelif did not lose a single round on any scoreboard in Paris.
After Carini won her eighth Italian women’s title earlier this month, she claimed the victory was her “revenge.”
Gold medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria poses on the podium during the medal ceremony in the women’s 66kg boxing final category during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on August 9, 2024. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images)
