By Juliette Jabkhiro and Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – The alleys and stairways of Roland Garros, that most genteel of stadiums, were flooded with Algerian flags and roars on Friday as fans of Imane Khelif, the female boxer thrust at the centre of a gender dispute, came to cheer her to Olympic gold.
“She’s become an icon,” smiled Mounir Melhoula, who lives in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris.
Melhoula’s 12 year-old daughter had become a fan of the fighter during the Games, and he told Reuters he had bought five tickets for his family to come to see her final bout.
On Friday, they were in the Olympic venue — all excited, all draped in white and green.
The febrile fervour of the Maghreb crowd jammed into court Philippe Chatrier was a world away from centre court’s usual gentile tennis congregation.
Draped in the red, white and green flag of Algeria, they sang, they roared, they bounced.
There was no “Quiet please” from an umpire, no polite applause. Instead the raucous crowd whooped, cheered and screamed from the minute the evening’s session opened, building and building until the fight everyone had come to see.
Melhoula has always been a big Olympics fan, but Khelif has managed to attract a new type of crowd. Roumeyssa Moussaoui, who came with her sister Sarah, told Reuters it was her first time watching a boxing bout, but that they wanted to show Khelif their support.
“When one us is attacked, it’s all of us who are attacked. She was hurt, and so were we,” she said.
A storm erupted over the participation of Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting at the Paris Games with the Algerian’s Italian opponent pulling out of their fight after less than a minute having taken a barrage of punches in their round of 16 bout.
Houria Benbetka felt the same way, which is why she bought tickets for her and her husband on a whim.
“I came to support her because she was mistreated. And because she’s a woman,” Benbetka said with passion, adding she had been moved by Khelif’s tears.
“She’s an Algerian woman, and Algerian women fight, in silence, and show their anger when they are walked all over.
“She’s 25, I could be her mum,” said the 60 year-old doctor. “Why go after her? This woman has always boxed, and now that’s she’s close to a medal, they go after her? It’s not fair play.
“Whether she wins or loses, that’s not why I’m here. It’s just to tell her ‘Imane we’re here’, that’s it. It’s just to support her.”
(Editing by Ossian Shine)
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