Childhood photos of Algerian boxer at centre of Olympic gender scandal emerge

Following an incident at the Olympic Games, Algerian Imane Khelif’s gender has become a topic of discussion.

Imane Khelif of Algeria delivered a single blow that caused her Italian opponent Angela Carini to throw in the towel, claiming she’d “never been hit so hard” in her life.

This caused fury, with Carini followers accusing Khelif of being “biologically male”.Carini’s reaction, combined with Khelif’s disqualification from last year’s women’s World Championships, has reignited the debate over who should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) stated that Imane Khelif and another boxer Lin Yu-ting did not match the “required eligibility criteria” for the female category, but later claimed the pair had XY chromosomes.

The International Olympic Committee has accused the IBA of disqualifying the duo based on a “arbitrary decision” with “no due process,” implying that no scientific tests were conducted as part of the decision.

Childhood photographs of Khelif, from Conservative Algeria, shows that she grew up as a female.

Photos of her and her family show her as a little girl dressed in female clothes, with supporters claiming she has always been a girl who just happened to have high testosterone and should not be made to suffer for it.

Khelif, who does not identify as transgender or intersex, is not thought to have commented directly on the qualifying row, but she alluded to it last month when she described 2023 as a difficult year.

When asked how she coped with missing the World Championships, she told Canal Algérie: “It was a tough blow for me, but I came back stronger to show my strength and determination, and show the whole world the brave woman who is Imane Khelif.”

The 25-year-old also spoke of her struggles to break out from childhood poverty and become a boxer, characterizing her experience as “impressive”.

Imane grew up in a small town in Tiaret, western Algeria, where girls have little prospects in sports.

She was a dedicated and talented footballer until the age of 16, when she discovered a propensity for scrapping while dodging and defending herself from boys who threatened her and chose battles with her.

But taking up the sport of boxing was a path paved with cultural and financial obstacles which Imane struggled to overcome.

“It was truly difficult, I come from a conservative region and family. Boxing was a sport dedicated only to men,” she told Canal Algérie.

“The toughest thing for me was travelling between my village and the town where I did my training. Those are obstacles I encountered at the start.”

Each week she had to take a bus from her village to the training centre 10 kilometres away, but her family could not afford the fare.

“I ended up selling bread in the street, I picked up crockery and other objects to earn money and be able to travel because I came from a very poor family,” she added.

She also started collecting scrap metal to sell, while her mother sold couscous and laid away the earnings for trip expenses.

“I had to do that kind of thing in order to keep doing this sport and now I feel like I’m living a dream.”

Imane went on to tell Canal Algérie: “I never imagined that one day I’d become a boxer and that I’d become world champion.

“I always liked football and I played it in my little village, my father always preferred football to boxing.

“But I was very good at sport at my school and my teacher encouraged me to switch to boxing, given I had good physical qualities, and he was right.

“My trainer Mohamed Chaouel had called me to the boxing studio and the moment I set foot in the ring, I instantly fell in love with this beautiful discipline.”

Imane is slated to fight in Paris on Saturday, August 3, as part of her Olympic campaign.

It’s unclear who she’ll meet, but a victory would secure her bronze medal.