Inside Olympic boxer Imane Khelif's tough upbringing from selling bread on street to controversial clash

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The controversial Olympics boxing contest between Algerian Imane Khelif's and Italian Angela Carini has caused heated debate across the world.But there is a story of hardship behind the North African's fighting background.The Mirror reports how Carini quit the round-of-16 bout in Paris just 46 seconds in after she claimed Khelif threw the hardest punch of her career.

The 25-year-old's tearful press conference sparked a global uproar, with many speculating over Khelif's gender and her right to participate in a women's competition.Khelif's background has now been thrown into question with notable gender critical voices like J.K Rowling hitting out at her participation in the competition- with the Harry Potter writer branding her a 'biological man'.The Algerian, also 25, has been reported to be a biological woman who has a rare condition categorised as differences in sex development (DSD), which can result in female individuals having male chromosomes or anatomy.She was assigned female at birth and is recorded as female on her Algerian passport.In an unearthed interview filmed ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics she said that she "wanted to show the whole world what a brave woman Imane Khelif is".The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has taken over the IBA this year to administer the boxing in Paris, issued a statement on Thursday confirming that, as with previous Games, the gender of athletes is based on their passports.

Spokesman Mark Adams said on Tuesday: "Everyone competing in the women's category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.

They are women in their passports and it's stated that this is the case, that they are female."Khelif has made her impassioned comeback after being disqualified