By Diego Ramos Bechara

Imane Khelif won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 66-kilogram (145-pound) boxing class on Friday, defeating China's Yang Liu. The performance culminated with her sitting on her coach's shoulders and celebrating with her arms in the air as a packed house at Roland Garros Stadium cheered her on.

While Khelif’s story ends in triumph, her Paris Olympics has been mired in battles inside and outside the ring—the out-of-ring battles centering on a dispute over her gender. The controversy initially arose after Khelif’s former opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, abandoned the match 46 seconds into the match after receiving several blows to the face from the Algerian boxer.

Then a post appeared on social media falsely claiming that Khelif was transgender and had been assigned male at birth. This led to an online row, with people debating whether or not Khelif should be allowed to box in the women's category.