Algerian Olympic boxer returns home to hero welcome

In Tiaret, a rural town of 200,000 on Algeria’s desert plateau, a celebration broke out Friday night to celebrate the return of Imane Khelif, the welterweight boxer who won an Olympic gold medal as she battled an international firestorm of lies, online abuse and unfounded speculation questioning her fitness to compete.

Standing in an open bus and making his way through the crowd of cheering fans, Khelif waved and posed for photos with athlete and bronze medalist Djamel Sedjati, also from Tiaret.

Videos of the parade posted on X show audiences danced to music as they gleefully threw guns in the air, and families gathered on balconies, brandishing replica gold medals as they took photos of Khelif, the 25-year-old daughter of a welder who rose to the highest echelons of her sport. Children sat on shoulders and one man was filmed climbing a tree to catch a glimpse of her.

Following Khelif’s convincing first-round victory over Italian boxer Angela Carini, prominent observers including JK Rowling, Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump have thrust Khelif into the crosshairs of a debate about sex and gender in sports, spreading misinformation about her sex and undermining the work that goes into being so good.

“The grin of a man who knows he is protected by a misogynistic sports organisation enjoying the misery of a woman he has just punched in the head,” Rowling wrote under a photo of Khelif’s fight with Carini.

Musk and Trump took it a step further, with the former president and current candidate promising to “keep men out of women’s sports.”

The attacks were unfounded: Khelif is a woman and was born a woman.

In Algeria, the attacks on her were not seen as part of a heated debate about gender and sports, but as an attack on the country itself. The Algerians defended her fiercely.

When Khelif returned home as the first Algerian, Arab and African woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, she was greeted with a reception befitting a heroine who has fought for the country on multiple fronts.

After winning gold in Paris, Khelif said she wanted to “thank the Algerian people who supported her through this ordeal,” and she repaid that support by hosting a party in Tiaret.

“All Algerian men and women have the right to be happy and celebrate,” she told reporters at a local government office on Friday.

The festivities were a tribute to Khelif’s tireless efforts, which took her from the city where she learned to box to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and the four subsequent victories that earned her a gold medal at the Olympics.

And the cheering crowd drowned out the noise of those trying to undermine Khelif’s historic victory.

Their charges stem from the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association’s decision to disqualify her from last year’s world championships in Taiwan. Khelif’s disqualification, which came after she defeated a Russian opponent, was due to failing an unspecified fitness test, the IBA said.

The International Olympic Committee criticized the IBA, calling the tests “impossibly flawed.”

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into a cyberbullying charge after Khelif’s lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a criminal complaint last week alleging “acts of aggravated cyber intimidation.”

Boudi said the boxer was the target of a “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign” and confirmed that JK Rowling and Elon Musk were named in the lawsuit, which was filed against X.

“What we are asking is that the Public Prosecution Service not only investigate these people, but also anyone else who deems it necessary. If the case goes to court, they will be tried,” Boudi said Variety.

Khelif’s coach, Mustapha Bensaou, told the Associated Press news agency that “all those involved will be prosecuted for violating the dignity and honour of Imane.”

Last week, Khelif told Algerian television channel El Bilad that no one had the right to question her gender and acknowledged the fear she felt during the Olympics.

But she continues to dominate her opponents both in and out of the ring.

“Why was there such an outrage all over the world?” she asked. “I was scared, but thank God I was able to overcome it.”