In a gym in northern Algeria’s Kabylia, 15-year-old Cerine Kessal was punching a bag with determination. The two-time national champion was envisioning even bigger achievements, inspired by Algerian Imane Khelif’s Olympic gold medal win last year.
Khelif’s victory sparked newfound interest in the sport among Algerian girls and women, leading to a rise in gym memberships across the country, especially in a traditionally male-dominated sport.
Khelif had emerged as a trailblazer for women athletes in Algeria after the Paris Olympics, despite facing controversy over her gender eligibility.
“I want to compete in African and world championships,” Kessal said, speaking in a mix of Arabic, French, and Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, also known as Berbers.
Her coach, Djaafar Ourhoun, mentioned that Khelif had become a “role model for other boxers at the gym” after winning her club, Jeunesse Sportive Azazga, its only medal at a recent national championship.
The small gym, converted from an old municipal slaughterhouse with the help of local families, now trains 20 female boxers, according to Ourhoun. He also mentioned that the young girls’ “hunger for results” often sparks “competitiveness, even jealousy, among their male counterparts.”
“I want to be like Imane Khelif and win an Olympic gold medal,” Kessal shared.
In 2023, the International Boxing Association excluded Khelif from its world championships, stating she failed gender eligibility tests due to carrying XY chromosomes. The 25-year-old champion rejected the IBA’s “false and offensive” claims and vowed to continue fighting both “in the ring” and “in the courts.”
“I’ve faced adversity before,” she said in a statement, “but I have never stayed down.”
In Bejaia, to the east of Algiers, clubs like Dream Team and Sidi Ayad Boxing Club have seen an increase in female participants as well.
Lina Debbou, a former boxer and now sports advisor, noted that this movement began right after the Olympics. “Imane Khelif brought so much to women’s boxing,” she said. “More girls are joining the sport thanks to her.”
Even in more conservative areas of the country, such as Djelfa in the Saharan Atlas, around 300 kilometers south of Algiers, women have begun taking up the sport.
“We first tried introducing women’s boxing in 2006, but it didn’t succeed due to the region’s conservative nature,” said Mohamed Benyacoub, director of local club Ennasr.
Now, he explained, “the women’s sports movement has begun to revive,” crediting Khelif for “shattering the taboo that women can’t box.”
Nacim Touami, a boxing referee whose wife is also a professional boxer, said that parents have been central to this “real obsession with boxing now.”
“Parents used to prefer volleyball or swimming for their daughters,” he said, “but after Khelif’s gold medal, we’ve seen a real shift.”
Manel Berkache, a former national champion and coach at JSA, added that it was mothers, particularly, who are leading the charge.
“Mothers are now the ones who register their daughters and attend training and matches, and this is a beautiful thing,” she said.
Hocine Oucherif, vice president of the Algerian Boxing Federation, referred to this as “the Imane Khelif phenomenon.”
“She is the locomotive of women’s boxing in Algeria,” he said. “She gave us a strong momentum.”
He revealed that over 100 junior girl boxers participated in this year’s national championship, more than double the number from the previous year.
It was at this event that Kessal won gold, competing against athletes from clubs including the Tiaret Civil Protection Club, where Khelif made her debut.
Like Kessal, 14-year-old Hayat Berouali, who only started boxing less than a month ago, also dreams of becoming a champion.
“I liked boxing after watching the Olympic fights, especially those of Imane Khelif, and my parents encouraged me,” she said with a smile.
