Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is on the verge of winning a gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games amid a gender dispute that has become one of the competition’s biggest stories.
Khelif, who will play for her chance to win gold on Friday, has been caught up in a gender debate after a 2023 decision by the now-banned International Boxing Association (IBA) resurfaced, which disqualified her for failing a gender eligibility test.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.
But conservative leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and former US President Donald Trump have chimed in on the debate after misinformation spread about Khelif being a transgender athlete, which she is not.
But who is Khelif, and when is her fight for the gold?
Here’s what we know:
Who is Imane Khelif? When and at what time is her fight?
Khelif, 25, grew up playing football in her rural village in Tiaret, western Algeria. After giving up on the sport in her teenage years, Khelif looked to boxing despite her father’s dismay.
Training was not easy. Khelif had to sell scrap metal and her mother’s couscous to raise enough money to take the bus for 10km (six miles) to the nearest gym.
But she swiftly caught the attention of the Algerian boxing federation and competed in the 2018 Women’s World Championship, where she came 17th after being eliminated in the first round.
She was one of the first three Olympic women’s boxers Algeria sent to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
