She comes from a small Algerian village, the home of boxer Imane Khelif, who was at the centre of a dispute over gender eligibility for the Paris Olympics. Her father celebrated the athlete as a “hero”.
Omar Khelif told AFP he had raised his daughter to be “brave” and proudly showed a photo of her at the age of seven or eight with her hair braided.
“Sport has been her passion since she was a child,” says the 49-year-old, sitting with two of his younger children.
His daughter Imane, who is competing in the 66 kg women’s boxing category at the Paris Olympics, was the subject of heated controversy around the world after it was revealed that she had previously failed unspecified gender suitability tests.
The 25-year-old caused her Italian rival Angela Carini to retire injured after just 46 seconds of a bout at the Paris Olympics on Thursday – sparking an uproar on social media, with some, including former US President Donald Trump, portraying the issue as a battle between men and women.
There is no indication that Khelif, who has competed in women’s sports for years, including at the Tokyo Olympics, identifies as anything other than a woman.
Her father showed his identity documents and her birth certificate to AFP news agency. He spoke from a rural village about 10 kilometers from Tiaret, a city nearly 300 kilometers southwest of the capital Algiers that has suffered from water shortages in recent months.
“My child is a girl,” said Omar Khelif. “She was raised as a girl. She is a strong girl – I raised her to work and be brave.”
“Difficult” sport for Algerians
Imane’s next fight on Saturday is in the quarterfinals against Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori. A win would guarantee her a medal – the first for Algeria at the Paris Games.
Her father insisted that Imane won the controversial fight against Carini simply because she was “stronger and the other was weaker.”
Imane has a “strong will when it comes to work and training,” he said.
In an interview with UNICEF, for which she serves as an ambassador, Imane Khelif spoke about her conservative upbringing this year and said her father initially had difficulty accepting her boxing.
He later accepted her career, she said in the interview, and described her parents as her “biggest fans.”
The boxer told UNICEF that she wants to encourage more girls to take up sport, especially since opportunities for girls in sport are limited in Algeria, and that she also wants to help fight obesity in the country.
“Boxing was not a particularly popular sport among women, especially in Algeria,” she told Algerian television station Canal Algerie before the Olympics. “It was difficult.”
“Raise the flag in Paris”
In addition to facing cultural challenges, she had to travel ten kilometers by bus from her village to train at the boxing gym. To pay for the bus fare, she sold scrap metal for recycling while her mother sold couscous.
“Imane is an example of an Algerian woman,” her father said. “She is one of the heroines of Algeria. God willing, she will honor us with a gold medal and raise the national flag in Paris.”
“That was our only goal from the beginning.”
At the local sports club where Imane started, a group of girls of different ages were warming up and jumping rope.
“We wish her the best of luck. She is truly an athlete who makes us proud,” said 17-year-old Zohra Chourouk, raising her arms in the air in encouragement.
“She honored the national flag. She is our role model.”
The group of young women training shouted “Good luck” to their heroine.
Coach Abdelkader Bezaiz said he wanted to give her a message from the club where she made her debut.
“I want to tell her not to concern herself with the criticism that is circulating on social networks,” said the coach.
“Their goal is clear: to confuse her and make her forget why she came to the Olympics.”