Berliner Boersenzeitung - Algerian girls take up boxing after Khelif's Olympic gold

EUR -
AED 4.167867
AFN 78.945293
ALL 98.431663
AMD 435.671765
ANG 2.030818
AOA 1041.119368
ARS 1341.472874
AUD 1.763237
AWG 2.043948
AZN 1.929385
BAM 1.958101
BBD 2.286774
BDT 138.581647
BGN 1.955299
BHD 0.425821
BIF 3371.171968
BMD 1.134739
BND 1.461928
BOB 7.836071
BRL 6.501602
BSD 1.132589
BTN 96.945939
BWP 15.212166
BYN 3.70641
BYR 22240.876637
BZD 2.274976
CAD 1.558836
CDF 3251.026112
CHF 0.934594
CLF 0.027629
CLP 1060.262478
CNY 8.174992
CNH 8.175525
COP 4714.838899
CRC 575.392807
CUC 1.134739
CUP 30.070573
CVE 110.394742
CZK 24.93407
DJF 201.682428
DKK 7.454523
DOP 66.857545
DZD 149.324182
EGP 56.231824
ERN 17.021079
ETB 151.553966
FJD 2.565665
FKP 0.84319
GBP 0.842732
GEL 3.109338
GGP 0.84319
GHS 11.624457
GIP 0.84319
GMD 81.701044
GNF 9813.171856
GTQ 8.71016
GYD 237.283506
HKD 8.897582
HNL 29.508503
HRK 7.534096
HTG 148.112407
HUF 403.944814
IDR 18574.195786
ILS 3.98582
IMP 0.84319
INR 97.097142
IQD 1485.646009
IRR 47800.863956
ISK 144.39539
JEP 0.84319
JMD 180.536367
JOD 0.804549
JPY 163.551576
KES 146.612176
KGS 99.232641
KHR 4536.154937
KMF 493.045459
KPW 1021.264744
KRW 1569.320725
KWD 0.348217
KYD 0.945102
KZT 579.826332
LAK 24471.441094
LBP 101476.595423
LKR 339.656188
LRD 226.507803
LSL 20.281822
LTL 3.350588
LVL 0.686392
LYD 6.203844
MAD 10.48604
MDL 19.649339
MGA 5179.035172
MKD 61.518148
MMK 2382.56916
MNT 4056.01476
MOP 9.161787
MRU 44.76866
MUR 51.926059
MVR 17.543468
MWK 1963.834148
MXN 22.055403
MYR 4.830017
MZN 72.520888
NAD 20.309469
NGN 1802.260065
NIO 41.682235
NOK 11.588558
NPR 155.113103
NZD 1.90236
OMR 0.434339
PAB 1.134113
PEN 4.108092
PGK 4.650134
PHP 63.284143
PKR 319.294617
PLN 4.246856
PYG 9049.314159
QAR 4.133922
RON 5.060293
RSD 117.723406
RUB 87.537563
RWF 1601.801592
SAR 4.25696
SBD 9.475938
SCR 16.1016
SDG 681.40857
SEK 10.883329
SGD 1.464953
SHP 0.891726
SLE 25.780883
SLL 23794.901398
SOS 647.279415
SRD 42.233266
STD 23486.798073
SVC 9.923575
SYP 14753.700838
SZL 20.275223
THB 37.235879
TJS 11.341879
TMT 3.977259
TND 3.390485
TOP 2.657672
TRY 44.532829
TTD 7.700983
TWD 33.948009
TZS 3055.030863
UAH 47.046635
UGX 4122.809007
USD 1.134739
UYU 47.227377
UZS 14480.5926
VES 107.626013
VND 29527.600582
VUV 136.499702
WST 3.139831
XAF 655.834821
XAG 0.034395
XAU 0.000345
XCD 3.066687
XDR 0.815648
XOF 655.834821
XPF 119.331742
YER 276.706156
ZAR 20.396022
ZMK 10214.011425
ZMW 30.154382
ZWL 365.385367
  • RBGPF

    -0.2380

    65.43

    -0.36%

  • CMSC

    0.1300

    22.22

    +0.59%

  • CMSD

    0.1100

    22.22

    +0.5%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    10.31

    -0.48%

  • RELX

    -0.0100

    53.92

    -0.02%

  • GSK

    1.0300

    41.03

    +2.51%

  • RIO

    -0.7700

    59.43

    -1.3%

  • BCC

    -0.9700

    86.88

    -1.12%

  • NGG

    0.8745

    71.39

    +1.22%

  • AZN

    1.9600

    72.83

    +2.69%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    12.94

    +1.24%

  • RYCEF

    0.0700

    11.65

    +0.6%

  • BCE

    0.3000

    21.8

    +1.38%

  • VOD

    0.0000

    10.34

    0%

  • BTI

    0.2300

    45.2

    +0.51%

  • BP

    -0.0700

    29.1

    -0.24%

Algerian girls take up boxing after Khelif's Olympic gold
Algerian girls take up boxing after Khelif's Olympic gold / Photo: - - AFP

Algerian girls take up boxing after Khelif's Olympic gold

In a gym in northern Algeria's Kabylia, 15-year-old Cerine Kessal was driving her fists into a punching bag. The two-time national champion was dreaming of greater feats after Algerian Imane Khelif won Olympic gold last year.

Text size:

Khelif's victory generated newfound interest among Algerian girls and women in the male-dominated sport, with gyms across the North African country witnessing a surge in memberships.

She had emerged from the Paris Olympics as a trailblazer for aspiring women athletes in Algeria, despite a gender controversy over her eligibility.

"I want to compete in African and world championships," Kessal said, speaking in a blend of Arabic, French and Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, also known as Berbers.

Her coach, Djaafar Ourhoun said Khelif had become "a role model for the other boxers at the gym", after winning her local club, Jeunesse Sportive Azazga, its only medal at a recent national championship.

The small gym, refashioned from a former municipal slaughterhouse with the help of local families, now trains 20 women boxers, said Ourhoun.

The young girls' "hunger for results" has often sparked "competitiveness, even jealousy, among their male counterparts," he said.

"I want to be like Imane Khelif and win an Olympic gold medal," said Kessal.

In 2023, the International Boxing Association barred Khelif from its world championships after it said she had failed gender eligibility tests for carrying XY chromosomes.

The 25-year-old champion denounced the IBA's "false and offensive" allegations and vowed last month to keep fighting "in the ring" and "in the courts".

"I have seen adversity before," she said in a statement, "but I have never stayed down".

- 'Shattered taboo' -

In Bejaia, further east of Algiers, clubs such as Dream Team and Sidi Ayad Boxing Club have also welcomed more women and girls.

Lina Debbou, a former boxer and now sports adviser, said this momentum started right after the Olympics.

"Imane Khelif brought so much to women's boxing," she told AFP. "More girls are joining the sport thanks to her."

Even in relatively more conservative parts of the country, like Djelfa in the Saharan Atlas range some 300 kilometres south of Algiers, more women are said to have taken up the sport.

"We first tried introducing women’s boxing in 2006, but it was not successful due to the region being conservative," Mohamed Benyacoub, the director of local club Ennasr, told AFP.

Now, "the women's sports movement began to revive," he said, adding that Khelif had "shattered the taboo that women can't box".

Nacim Touami, a boxing referee whose wife is also a professional boxer, said parents are playing a pivotal role in this "real obsession with boxing now".

"Parents used to prefer volleyball or swimming for their daughters," he said. "But after Khelif's gold medal, we've seen a real shift."

- 'The Khelif phenomenon' -

Manel Berkache, a former national champion who also coaches at JSA, said it was mothers, in particular, who were driving the change.

"Mothers are now the ones who register their daughters and attend training and matches, and this is a beautiful thing," she said.

Hocine Oucherif,vice-president of the Algerian Boxing Federation, called this "the Imane Khelif phenomenon".

"She is the locomotive of women's boxing in Algeria," he said. "She gave us a strong momentum."

He said over 100 junior girl boxers had turned up at this year's national championship -- more than double the number from last year.

It was at this competition that Kessal won gold, sparring against athletes from clubs including the Tiaret Civil Protection Club where Khelif debuted.

Like Kessal, 14-year-old Hayat Berouali, who picked up boxing less than a month ago, dreams of becoming a champion, too.

"I liked boxing after watching fights at the Olympic Games, especially those of Imane Khelif, and my parents encouraged me," she said, smiling.

(K.Lüdke--BBZ)