Profile | Paris Olympics: Imane Khelif – from sporty young girl to two-time Olympian in gender row

Boxer Imane Khelif is a hero in her native Algeria but her name at the Paris Olympic Games has been used to fuel the flames of the ongoing culture war surrounding trans athletes. The 25-year-old is a biological woman who has been erroneously labelled “trans” by social commentators after her round-of-16 opponent Angela Carini quit 46 seconds into their fight. Carini claimed she had never been hit so hard and her decision to quit led to a barrage of abuse for Khelif, including false accusations of her being trans. Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori, who Khelif faces in the quarter-finals, shared vitriol-filled posts regarding the Algerian which include slurs such as “monster” and “half breed”. Images from Khelif’s childhood show her as a young girl but that has not been enough to stop some spreading misinformation. So ahead of her quarter-final, here is a look at the Algerian female boxer’s journey. Football beginnings Questions surrounding her gender date back to her disqualification from the Boxing World Championships in March 2023. But before we get there, we start with her childhood as a young girl playing football on the streets of her tiny village of Tairet in northwestern Algeria. Her dream was to become a professional footballer and appeared to excel at the sport by age 16, despite it not being seen as a game fit for girls in her country. However, the boys in her village felt threatened and picked fights, which ironically led her to boxing as she honed her capability to dodge their punches. Yet taking up boxing proved even more challenging. Her father, working as a welder away in the Sahara desert, did not approve of boxing for girls. However, seeing her persistence and passion, her father’s attitude later changed and both of her parents supported her fully boxing career now. “I started with nothing and now I have everything,” Khelif said. “They are my biggest fans.” Ring walk To attend regular boxing training sessions, Khelif had to travel 10 kilometres to another village each week. The teenager had to sell scrap metal for recycling to afford the bus fare, with support from her mother who sold food. But the hardships appeared worth it as, three years later, at the age of 19, she competed at the World Championships in New Delhi, where she claimed 19th place after suffering elimination in the preliminary round. The following year, she represented Algeria at the World Championships in Russia, where she came 33rd. At the delayed Tokyo Games in 2022, she made her Olympic debut in the women’s 60kg category as one of her country’s top female boxers but failed to reach the medal stage as she was defeated in the quarter-finals by Ireland’s Kellie Harrington. The January 2024, she took up the role of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) ambassador. “My message to young people is to follow your dreams. Don’t let obstacles come in your way, resist any obstacles and overcome them,” she said. “My dream is to win a gold medal. If I win, mothers and fathers can see how far their children can go. I particularly want to inspire girls and children who are disadvantaged in Algeria.” Gender row But it was a little under a year earlier that the controversy began to take shape. Ahead of her 2023 World Championships gold-medal fight with China’s Yang Liu, Khelif was disqualified for failing to meet the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) eligibility criteria. The Algerian Olympic Committee said the reason for the disqualification was for medical reasons, but IBA president Umar Kremlev said tests had “proved she had XY chromosomes.” However, a later report by The Washington Post stated that: “It remains unclear what standards Khelif failed to lead to the disqualifications,” adding: “There never has been evidence that Khelif had XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone.” The IBA, who were stripped of their international recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, never revealed their testing methodology. The IOC responded with a statement in response claiming the boxing association’s decision to be “sudden and arbitrary” and “without any process”. The IOC released a further statement defending her eligibility as the controversy following Carini’s withdrawal erupted. In Hamori, Khelif faces another opponent whose feelings on the Algerian’s presence have been made clear. But overcoming obstacles put in front of her is what Khelif has done since she was a little girl.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}The 25-year-old is a biological woman who has been erroneously labelled “trans” by social commentators

The 25-year-old is a biological woman who has been erroneously labelled “trans” by social commentators