FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
What do we really know about the life of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who at the "Paris 2024" Olympics was first accused (in the dark) of being transgender and then considered simply as a woman who changed to a man? Nothing.
What do we know and what is really behind her story as a girl who later became a boxer? Nothing. What do we know about the path that led her to be one of the strongest in the world at the age of 25 and, despite the fact that she was herself, end up in the spotlight because she was "a woman who was born a man"? Nothing.
It all boils down to the words "it hurts so bad" said by her rival in the ring, the Italian Angela Karini, who threw in the towel after only 46 seconds, after the first punch she received from Imane Khelif, saying "it's not fair like that, she hits like a man."
The story of the true story of the boxer has a distant origin, when she was 16 years old and even a promising soccer player. In Tiaret, a village in Western Algeria, a girl who played sports was frowned upon. She herself said in an interview on the UNICEF website (of which she is an ambassador) that if she started boxing, the credit (or blame) went to the bullies who bullied her...
She also defied her family's reservations and prejudices because she had chosen a typically male sport and her father would have preferred her to cultivate her skills in football rather than gloves.
If she reached the top today it is because she really believed in what she was doing because of the persistence that helped her overcome very strong personal sacrifices: she sold scrap metal for recycling and her mother sold gnomes on the village streets of her so that she would have the money to get on the bus and go to the training center…
She climbed the ladder little by little: at the age of 19 she was ranked 17th at the World Championships in New Delhi (2018), the following year (2019) she came 33rd at the World Championships in Russia.
It was the first Olympics of her career in Japan. "I started with nothing and now I have everything", she proudly affirmed, the same pride she had for herself, for her country that made her a shield in these hours of media storm where she made history.
The Algerian is not invincible as claimed, as she was stopped in the quarterfinals at Tokyo 2020 because she was eliminated by a better and stronger opponent than her, who hit hard.
But no one then thought to cry foul that the fight wasn't fair, or raise doubts about the gender identity of Irishwoman Kellie Harrington, who sent the Algerian home with punches.
It was Khelif who once again bowed out in the 2022 World Cup final as she was beaten by Amy Broadhurst, another Irishwoman. Then, in 2023, that ugly mess between the IBA and the IOC put her in the middle of a story that is bigger than her, taking away her chance to compete for a medal while the tournament was underway. The question arises: why had they not noticed this hormonal detail and the male chromosomes in the Algerian before?
Lini një Përgjigje