PARIS : Algeria fans flocked into Roland Garros looking to support Imane Khelif as the boxer at the centre of a gender dispute at the Olympics prepared for her welterweight semi-final on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Boxing - Women's 66kg - Quarterfinal - North Paris Arena, Villepinte, France - August 03, 2024. Imane Khelif of Algeria in action with Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra/File Photo
"We are here to support Imane. She deserves the support of the whole country, she has been through so much," Mohamed Hadji, a 45-year-old computer technician told Reuters as he strolled through the western Paris venue draped in an Algeria flag. "Poor girl, I hope she will win tonight and go on to win the title, that's the least she deserves. This whole debate is ridiculous," said Zineb Kadi, who came with her daughter.Some of the crowd outside the stadium were ululating, with the joyful high-pitched vocal sound usually performed by women in the Arab world at weddings and celebrations reverberating.
"It's out of support because I love Algerians and out of support in relation to the controversy," she told Reuters."Women athletes who have more developed bodies than other women are not an anomaly. They would have us believe it is a problem but it's a performance not a problem," added Martinet.
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