The Untold Truth Of Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif
From a humble childhood in rural Algeria to a viral fight at the Paris Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has made a name for herself. Here's what we know about her.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00From a humble childhood in rural Algeria to a viral fight at the Paris Olympics, Algerian
00:05boxer Iman Khalif has made a name for herself. Here's what we know about her.
00:09Iman Khalif was born in 1999 in Tiaret, Algeria, a city of fewer than 150,000 at that time
00:15and which sits in a wider region of the same name. Far from the wealth of Algeria's capital
00:19city Algiers and flanked by North Africa's Atlas Mountains, the province of Tiaret relies
00:24heavily on agriculture, and Khalif's family were no strangers to poverty. Her father worked
00:29in the Saharan deserts as a welder, spending long periods away from their remote village.
00:33And while the occupation of her mother is unknown, Khalif made it clear in an interview
00:36with UNICEF that their finances were sorely stretched when she decided to pursue boxing
00:40at the age of 16.
00:42The initial hurdles she faced were not just the cost of equipment or gym memberships or
00:45personal trainers — just the bus fare to travel the 10 kilometers to the nearest gym
00:49was enough of a hindrance. It also didn't help that she could not approach her father
00:53for the funds, since he didn't approve of her newly chosen sport. But undeterred, the
00:57teenage Khalif found ways to raise the funds, saying in an interview with Canal Algerie,
01:01I have it to sell bread in the street. I collect the dishes and other objects to earn money
01:05and to be able to move around because I came from a very poor family.
01:09Growing up in rural Algeria, Khalif was surrounded by a deeply conservative culture that has
01:13still yet to fully embrace women's rights. But even before she turned to boxing in her
01:17mid-teens, the young Khalif was challenging these cultural norms with her prowess at soccer.
01:22Athletic by nature, Khalif fell in love with a sport that was largely seen as a boys' game.
01:26She also attracted plenty of the wrong sort of attention for being a girl who played soccer,
01:30let alone being a gifted player, with local boys mercilessly taunting and even physically
01:34attacking her. But as fate would have it, her ability to hold her own in those fights,
01:38with her natural speed and agility helping her dodge the punches of her tormentors, cracked
01:42open the door to the world of boxing.
01:45Khalif went on to describe how she was encouraged to take up boxing by a teacher who had seen
01:48her potential, and that she was further inspired after watching women's boxing during the 2016
01:53Olympics held in Brazil. After one training session, she was hooked, and didn't look back.
01:57Since finishing 17th in the 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships after just three
02:09years of training, Khalif has proven herself as a world-class boxer. She continued her
02:13career as a lightweight with medal finishes in five major tournaments, including three
02:17gold medals in three separate regional games in 2022 and 2023, and was a quarterfinalist
02:23in Tokyo's 2020 Summer Olympics. And so while Khalif certainly earned a reputation as a
02:27fierce fighter, she's not exactly a legendary one, either.
02:30But in the 2024 Summer Olympics, after a victorious final 16 fight against Italy's Angela Carini,
02:36Khalif found herself in the limelight, and not for the reasons she may have hoped. The
02:40Olympic women's boxing match between Khalif and Carini lasted a mere 46 seconds, with
02:44Khalif winning the fight after a flurry of punches caused Carini to dramatically bow
02:48out.
02:49The events of Carini's tearful forfeiture, combined with her reportedly describing Khalif's
02:53strikes as far more powerful than anything she'd experienced before, rapidly drew unfair
02:57criticism of Khalif. It certainly did not help that the International Boxing Association
03:01— which, for various reasons, has been disavowed by the International Olympic Committee since
03:062019 — had disqualified Khalif from their 2023 World Championships for vague, unsubstantiated
03:11gender tests. The International Olympic Committee later defended Khalif's participation in the
03:16Olympics.
03:17I think we all have a responsibility, by the way, to try to dial down this and not turn
03:21it into some kind of witch hunt.
03:23The truth is, with nine defeats by other female opponents over the course of her career, Khalif's
03:27boxing record is impressive, but not extraordinary.
03:31Iman Khalif is greeted by her fellow Algerians with roars of cheers at boxing tournaments,
03:35and in 2024, Khalif found a way to get back to her country. Algeria, like any other nation,
03:40has its fair share of pressing issues, and according to Khalif, one of them is a lack
03:44of recognition of the health benefits that sport can bring to children. In January 2024,
03:49Khalif took on another role, National Ambassador for UNICEF, a child-focused humanitarian branch
03:53of the vast and complex UN, hoping to spread sports awareness and inspiration for both
03:57parents and children.
03:59Girls in particular are a focus for Khalif in a country that has historically restricted
04:02opportunities for women, but she hopes that her message and example will benefit all Algerians,
04:07saying in an interview with UNICEF,
04:09"...many parents are unaware of the advantages of sports, and how it can improve not only
04:13your physical fitness, but also your mental well-being."