Omar Khelif details his daughter Imane’s childhood after the Algerian boxer’s controversy

Imane Khelif became, much to his regret, the great opponent of the Paris Games. The controversy over her gender put her at the center of the target of all kinds of comments that caused her more than one upset and many tears.

Fortunately, he had the support of his people, who did not hesitate to come to his defense. This is the case of Omar Khelif, her father, who broke his silence to stand up for his daughter.

“My daughter is a girl. They raised her like a girl. She is a strong woman. I taught him to work and be brave“explains this worker in the family room of a poor rural village located 10 km from Tiaret, a city about 300 km southwest of Algiers that has been affected by the lack of drinking water in recent months.

Saturday, Imane Khelif defeated Hungarian Luca Anna Hamori (-66 kg) in the quarterfinalswhich guaranteed him at least bronze and Algeria’s first medal at the Paris Olympic Games.

Two days earlier, according to her father, Imane defeated her Italian rival Angela Carini in the round of 16, “because her daughter was stronger.” Imane “really wants to work and train,” emphasizes Khelif, a 49-year-old unemployed welder.

“Since he was little, his passion was sports. In all other sports, he was always on topin athletics and in football,” he remembers.

In addition to the prejudices he had to fight, The young woman had to find a way to finance her travels from his small town to Tiaret and then to the capital, Algiers, to the point where as a teenager he was selling scrap metal and his mother was selling homemade couscous.

“Imane is an example of an Algerian woman. She is one of the heroines of Algeria. God willing, he will honor us with a gold medal and will raise the national (Algerian) flag in Paris,” he added, stressing that this was his “sole goal from the beginning.”