Olympic Champion Boxer Embroiled in Gender Controversy

Algiers:

Originally from a destitute village, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has conquered numerous challenges throughout her life to secure a controversial Paris Olympics gold on Friday.

Sporting braided hair and standing tall at 1.79 meters (5ft 9in), the 25-year-old has unintentionally become one of the main figures of the Games.

Alongside Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, she was disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing gender eligibility examinations, only to be approved to compete in the French capital.

Ms Khelif was born in a village 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the Algerian capital Algiers.

From a family of limited resources, she mentioned before the Games the challenges of her life in “a village of traditional people” in semi-desert surroundings.

“I originated from a traditional family. Boxing is not a widely popular sport for women, particularly in Algeria,” she conveyed to Canal Algerie a month before the Games, smiling frequently and speaking softly.

“It was challenging.”

A robust athlete, she engaged in soccer with the boys in her village of Biban Mesbah, but defeating them in matches led to altercations where she fought back with punches.

These altercations eventually guided her towards boxing, and on Friday she secured one of the most disputed gold medals in recent memory.

In a conversation with UNICEF, she disclosed that she used to vend scrap metal and her mother sold homemade couscous to afford bus tickets to a nearby town.

Ms Imane’s father Omar initially disapproved of her choice to pursue boxing, but he eventually became one of her greatest supporters.

The jobless welder previously informed AFP that his daughter is “an epitome of the Algerian woman,” also commending her commitment to training.

‘Courageous young woman’

In 2022, Khelif informed the Algerian news agency APS that she had contemplated abandoning boxing “because my family did not embrace the idea and due to society’s perception of me, believing that I was engaging in wrongdoing.”

“Yet all these obstacles made me even more resilient and served as an additional incentive to fulfill my aspirations.”

She also emphasized her resolve in an interview on the UNICEF website, stating her “ambition is to secure a gold medal”.

“If I succeed, parents will witness how far their children can reach,” she remarked. “I aspire to motivate girls and children in Algeria.”

Ms Khelif’s international career took off with her involvement in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she achieved fifth place in her weight category.

In 2023, she progressed to the semi-finals of the world championships in New Delhi.

However, she was then disqualified following gender eligibility assessments by the International Boxing Association, which is not endorsed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is not organizing the sport in Paris.

She initially lodged an appeal but subsequently retracted her grievance, according to the IBA.

There is no indication that Ms Khelif identifies as anything other than a woman.

Her father presented identification papers and her birth certificate to AFP and, having been doubtful of her boxing career during her youth, hailed her as “a heroine”.

“My child is a girl,” Omar Khelif stated. “She was brought up as a girl. She is a resilient girl — I raised her to toil and be fearless.”