Controversy: According to Wikipedia, Imane Khelif is a girl who suffered prejudices before becoming famous in boxing.
HIBAPRESS-RABAT
There has been a lot of talk about the “boxer” Imane Khelif who has been in the spotlight recently because of the controversy surrounding her gender.
While some see her as a boy passed off as a girl, others insist that she was indeed born a girl.
It should be noted that the IBA classified him as a boy and kept him away from its competitions at the same time as the IOC accepted him as a girl and allowed him to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
By the way, who is Imane Khelif so that this character can create a real “revolution” on the sporting level?
According to Wikipedia, Imane Khelif is a girl born on May 2, 1999 and originally from the city of Aïn Sidi Ali in the wilaya of Laghouat in Algeria, who then settled in the village of Biban Misbah (Aïn Bouchekif, wilaya of Tiaret). She continued her studies there until the second year of high school before joining the Institute of Sports Science and Technology in Aïn Benian, Algiers.
Imane was first passionate about football, which she only played with classmates. On the advice of coach Mohamed Chaara, she decided to devote herself to boxing and join the Tiaret Civil Protection club.
At a young age, she faced prejudice. She says, “I come from a conservative region and family. The view there is that boxing is for boys.” She also has to travel from the village to the city to train. She shares how she went from selling bread on the streets of her village to becoming a boxer: “I used to sell bread on the street. I collected dishes and other things to earn money and to move, because I came from a very poor family.”
She obtained 17th place at the world championship in New Delhi in 2018 and then represented Algeria at the 2019 world championship which took place in Russia where she ranked 33rd.
Imane Khelif also represented her country at the 2019 African Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she placed fifth in the lightweight category (under 60 kg) each time. She won the silver medal in the super lightweight category at the 2022 Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championships in Istanbul and the gold medal in the under 63 kg category at the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran and at the 2022 African Amateur Boxing Championships in Maputo.
