Heroes’ welcome for controversial boxer

Cheering crowds filled the streets of Tiaret, Algeria on Friday to welcome boxer Imane Khelif back home as she returned from the Paris Olympic Games where she won a gold medal. Khelif became the centre of global attention after Italian boxer Angela Carini quit their bout in 46 seconds, before she went on to win the women’s 66kg welterweight gold medal a week later. CNN reports that some spectators watching her bout against Carini raised questions about Khelif’s participation, citing a 2023 decision by a now-discredited boxing regulator to bar her from a women’s tournament on gender eligibility grounds. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, strongly supported her participation in the 2024 Games, with IOC spokesperson Mark Adams saying she was ‘born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport’. The fight became a flashpoint for an often-misinformed debate about how women are allowed to compete in sports. It also triggered an onslaught of online abuse, with transphobic commentators incorrectly calling Khelif ‘a man’ because of an alleged physical advantage. Khelif won one of Algeria’s two gold medals at the Paris Olympics, with gymnast Kaylia Nemour winning the other in the women’s uneven bars. After Khelif won her gold medal, her lawyer Nabil Boudi said she filed a legal complaint with the Paris prosecutors saying Khelif suffered ‘aggravated online harassment’.