Searchlight has been beamed on the childhood of Algeria’s controversial boxer, Imane Khelif, revealing the odds she faced to become an Olympic boxer.
Khelif came to global consciousness after she punched Italy’s Angela Carini out of the Paris Olympics in 46 seconds, reigniting past controversies about Khelif’s sexuality, especially considering the fact that she was disqualified from the IBA-organised World Championship in New Delhi, India in 2023.
IBA had said that the athlete was disqualified because she failed a gender eligibility test, along with a boxer from Taiwan.
It was later clarified that Khelif, who has suffered nine losses in her international career, was a female.
She failed the past gender tests due to a medical condition that gave her the X and Y chromosomes like a man.
Another athlete of South African extraction, Caster Semenya faced similar trouble throughout her sprinting career.
Childhood pictures of Khelif have now emerged showing her dressed as a girl while posing with her family.
According to information emerging, Khelif came from a poor background where she had to hawk bread on the street to pay for her boxing training.
An interview the athlete gave earlier has been thrown up, wherein she gave a peak into the difficult childhood she endured to get to where she is today.
The athlete disclosed that apart from selling bread in the street, she also collected dishes and other objects to earn money and to be able to move around.
She also faced significant odds going into boxing because her community members viewed the profession as an exclusive preserve of mend.
Khelif recalled that a teacher told her she had the right “physical qualities” to be good at boxing.
She said her father however preferred football to boxing and was introduced to football adding that she played it in her little village.”
She said her teacher continued to encourage her to pursue boxing and she later did.
Her impoverished background threatened to stop her pursuit, but she weathered the storm and later moved to the Algerian capital, Algiers where she fully established herself in the sport before making a life for herself abroad to pursue her sporting dreams.
The latest in a string of obstacles along her path is the gender row that reared its ugly head last year and has dogged her since then.
She and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from last year’s World Championships at the eleventh hour because they did not meet gender eligibility criteria.
She described 2023 as a very difficult year for her. While admitting that the year threw her a hard blow, she came back stronger to show her strength and determination as a brave woman.
The International Olympic Committee stands by Khelif.
