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TIARET, Algeria (AP) — With an outpouring of fans greeting her as she arrived in her hometown on Friday, Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif extolled Algeria for backing its athletes and said she hoped to again make her country proud in the future.
The football-obsessed North African country has given Khelif the celebrity treatment since she returned to Algiers earlier this week. Nowhere has this been more true than Tiaret, the largely rural region in central Algeria where she grew up and learned to box.
She and track star Djamel Sedjati were honored by local leaders and then paraded through the streets atop a city bus as hundreds of residents raised their hands and snapped photos.
“All Algerian men and women have the right to be happy and celebrate,” she told reporters Friday at a local government office. “This proves that the government and the people are all behind sports.”
Algerians vigorously defended Khelif as she advanced through the Olympic Games amid international scrutiny and uninformed speculation about her sex.
Despite being born and raised as a woman, she found herself in the crosshairs of Western debates about gender, sex and sports after failing unspecified and untransparent eligibility tests for women’s competition from the now-banned International Boxing Association in 2023.
As observers including billionaire Elon Musk, author J.K. Rowling and former U.S. President Donald Trump referred to her as a man in online posts, Algerians saw the controversy as an attack on their nation.
On Friday, Tiaret residents acknowledged the hardships that Khelif faced throughout the Olympics and said they hoped her success was just the beginning.
"We hope authorities will support her in moments of victory like this as well as throughout the whole year. She has suffered enormously and started from scratch,” Mohamed Hamou said, sitting next to Khelif in Tiaret on Friday afternoon.
Later at the parade, Nadjia Fehma, another Tiaret resident, reveled in her victory and said she was an inspiration.
"She’s made us really proud, especially given her career path and the way she’s ended up succeeding," Fehma said.
Khelif's hometown welcome came days after she filed a criminal complaint for cyber-harassment in France, with her lawyer alleging a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” throughout the Olympics.
On Wednesday, Khelif acknowledged the difficulties and fear she felt on El Bilad, a private television channel in Algeria. She said nobody had the right to question her sex and that she wasn't someone who enjoyed mixing politics and sports.
“Why was there such an outcry all over the world?" she asked. “I was afraid, but thank God, I was able to overcome it.”