After a fortnight surrounded by a gender-row controversy, Imane Khelif became an Olympic gold medallist for the first time as she defeated the world champion Yang Liu of China in the women’s 66kg category by unanimous decision.
The greatest victory of the 25-year-old’s career was sealed in jubilant scenes at Roland Garros as the Algerian diaspora showed up in numbers, filling out Court Philippe-Chatrier and raucously supporting her for every second of the gold medal bout. Khelif is Algeria’s first Olympic gold medallist in women’s boxing and their first boxer overall to win gold since 1996.
