Imane Khelif was one of the great protagonists of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. And not only because of her consecration in the category up to 66 kilos of women’s boxing. The Algerian won the gold amid the controversy generated by suspicions about her gender, raised when it became known that she had been disqualified from the 2023 World Cup for failing the eligibility tests for that competition. After the meeting in the French capital, he filed a complaint for cyberbullying against the magnate Elon Musk and the writer J.K. Rowlingauthor of the saga of Harry Potteramong others, and became a social media sensation and a star in his country. And now she is focused on two new projects: a documentary that will tell her story and the leap to professionalism.
“The important thing for me is to have become a role model for Algerian youth. And I want my story to reach all those young women who look at me that way,” he commented at a press conference he gave this Monday at the headquarters of the Algerian Olympic Committee.
And she acknowledged that she felt “deeply affected by the violence of hate speech and messages” that she received during her participation in the Olympic Games.
The 25-year-old boxer announced that the documentary will be called “Imane Khelif… a success story”which will be broadcast on international platforms and will be an opportunity to tell his side of the events and all the challenges he faced from his early years in boxing to the controversies of recent years. Although he did not reveal the release date.
He also did not say when he will begin his professional career, although he confirmed that it will be the next big step in his boxing career.
“I will soon enter the world of professionalism and I have many offers for this new experience. I have not yet decided in which country I will start my career, but what is certain is that this will be my future goal,” he stated.
The controversy in the Khelif tournament arose when, after her qualification for the Games, it became known that she and other boxers (such as the Taiwanese Yu Ting Lin) had been disqualified from the 2023 World Cup for failing to pass gender eligibility tests from the International Boxing Association. The IBA (for its acronym in English) assured that these tests – whose details and results are confidential – determined that “they had competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
Since that association was suspended years ago by the International Olympic Committee Due to arbitration scandals, a large debt and managerial corruption and it is the IOC that organizes the Olympic tournament, the Algerian had no problems competing in Paris.
After their second round victory against Angela Carini In a fight that lasted 46 seconds and ended with the Italian throwing in the towel, in the midst of crying, criticism and attacks against Khelif broke out.
The boxer managed to turn a deaf ear to the messages and judgments against her and ended up climbing to the top of the podium in Roland Garrosheadquarters of the medal fights. And even though he lived through hard times in the midst of the controversy and came out to defend himself several times –“I am a woman like any other. I was born a woman, I lived as a woman and I competed as a woman”he assured, managed to get something positive out of the great exposure his case gave him.
Upon returning to Algeria, she was received as a hero by a crowd and received the medal of the Order of Merit from the hands of the president Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
In the following weeks, she began to show a more feminine and relaxed image –“I didn’t need to go to the beauty salon to win gold”he joked about his change of look – and to share more of his personal life on his networks. Not only did his number of followers increase greatly, but he became a very influential personality in his country and also began to venture into the world of fashion. And now he will focus on the production of his new documentary and projecting his professional career.