"My responsibility that I did that mistake" - Andrey Rublev apologizes for controversial remarks on gender test-failed boxer Imane Khelif at Olympics
Andrey Rublev has come out with an apology for his controversial remarks about boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics, where he mistakenly referred to Khelif as a 'man who identifies as a woman.' Rublev had deleted the comments he had posted on social media after fans criticized him for spreading misinformation.
Khelif, hailing from Algeria, has become the talk of the Olympics over the past few days. After it came to light that she had failed a gender test last year at the World Championships, her participation in Paris was called into question by some. The situation was made worse when her first-round opponent, Italy's Angela Carini, retired from their match in under a minute, claiming that she had never been punched as hard before.
This led to Khelif copping a lot of criticism from many, including the likes of Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Andy Murray's mother Judy. A narrative started taking shape on social media after that, stating that Khelif was a transgender athlete.
That has since been debunked, as there is no evidence the Algerian is not female. It is also the reason the IOC cleared her participation at the event.
Among those who bought into the misinformation was Andrey Rublev, who proclaimed a couple of days ago that he couldn't understand how the Olympics allowed Khelif to rain violence on a woman despite being a "man who identified as a woman."
"At the biggest and most important sport event <<Olympic Games>> we see live how a man who identifies as a woman is hitting a woman (saying it's equal rights boxing) and no one's stopping this," Andrey Rublev had said.
"If a man would identify himself as a kid, would they let him compete at a kids boxing tournament? This is something I'll never understand. I feel really sorry for the Italian athlete who was preparing for a long time for this moment," he added.
Several tennis fans were quick to call out the Russian. Currently in action at the Citi Open in Washington, Rublev was asked about the controversy by journalist Ben Rothenberg, as well as why he took down the post.
Rublev replied that he first posted the comments because he wanted to call out violence against women, and that he had nothing against anyone in particular. As for the subsequent deletion, he acknowledged the mistake he made in not checking the source of the information, and took full responsibility for his actions.
"I decided to post it because, first of all, I wanted to make an opinion that I'm against women's violence, any towards women. And I did that post. So it was nothing against anyone, it was just that I was against violence towards women," Rublev said.
"And then I didn't - it was my bad - I didn't check enough all the information, all the news. Because the sports website that I checked - I don't want to blame them and take out responsibility of mine - it's still my responsibility that I did that mistake and I didn't check enough," he added.
Andrey Rublev apologized for his actions as well, stating:
"So I'm sorry and I want to apologize that I didn't check that information, and that's why I take it out."
It should be noted that Angela Carini has also since apologized to Imane Khelif, stating that she made her comments out of anger and did not expect the controversy to spread so wide.
Andrey Rublev has reached quarterfinals of Citi Open
On the tennis side of things, Andrey Rublev has reached the quarterfinals of the Citi Open, where he is set to take on home favorite Frances Tiafoe. Both Rublev and Tiafoe chose not to play at the Olympics despite qualifying for it through their ATP rankings.
Rublev defeated Luca Van Assche and Arthur Rinderknech in his first two rounds in Washington, while Tiafoe took down Daniel Elahi Galan and Aleksandar Kovacevic in the first and second rounds.