Imane Khelif: Women’s Boxing, Geopolitical Power and Gendered Media Narratives

Abstract

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, became the first Olympic gold medalist for Algeria and the Arab World. Her athletic journey has become a focal point for debates surrounding gender identity, media framing and postcolonial politics. Our findings reveal that while Algerian and Arab media celebrated Khelif as a symbol of national pride and resistance, international media narratives frequently fixated on her physicality, questioning her eligibility and reinforcing racialised and gendered stereotypes. Social media further complicated these narratives, amplifying both harmful rhetoric and counter-narratives that championed Khelif’s resilience. By situating Khelif’s experiences within broader geopolitical tensions, particularly Algeria’s postcolonial relationship with France–where the Olympics and her gold medal victory took place–we highlight how her success transcended sport to embody cultural resistance and assert national identity. Overall, Khelif’s case exposes systemic biases in international sports governance and demonstrates how female athletes from non-Western contexts are disproportionately subjected to exclusionary scrutiny.