CNN
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Cheering crowds filled the streets of Tiaret, Algeria, on Friday evening to welcome boxer Imane Khelif back from the Paris Olympics, where she won a gold medal.
On Friday, she posted a video of the parade on her Instagram story, sparking frenzied cheers from the crowd, who waved back at her.
In other photos, she can be seen standing on the top deck of a slow-moving open-top bus with her gold medal, waving to the crowds around her in the northern Algerian city, while the night sky is lit up by hundreds of people holding up their cellphones to take photos.
Khelif found herself in the spotlight worldwide after Italian boxer Angela Carini stopped the fight after 46 seconds and won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight division -66 kg a week later.
Some spectators of her fight against Carini questioned Khelif’s participation, citing the decision of a now-discredited boxing regulator to bar her from a women’s tournament in 2023 on gender-eligibility grounds.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strongly supported her participation in the 2024 Games. IOC spokesman Mark Adams stated that she was “born a woman, registered as a woman, lived her life as a woman, boxed as a woman and holds a women’s passport”.
The fight became the focal point of an often misguided debate about women being allowed to compete in sporting events. It also sparked a torrent of abuse online, with transphobic commentators falsely referring to Khelif as a “man” because he was supposedly physically superior.
With the world watching, Khelif progressed through the competition, received tremendous support from the spectators and ultimately won a gold medal.
“I am very happy. This was my dream for eight years and now I am an Olympic champion and gold medalist,” she said after the fight. “I worked for eight years, got no sleep, and was tired for eight years.”
Khelif won one of Algeria’s two gold medals at the Paris Olympics, the other being won by gymnast Kaylia Nemour in the women’s uneven bars.
On their return to Algeria, they were greeted by the country’s President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as well as runner Djamel Sedjati, who won a bronze medal in the men’s 800 metres.
After winning her gold medal, Khelif filed a lawsuit with the Paris prosecutor’s office, according to her lawyer Nabil Boudi, claiming that Khelif had been subjected to “serious online harassment.”
