Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal on Friday at the Paris Olympics, emerging a champion from a tumultuous run at the Games where she endured intense scrutiny in the ring and online abuse from around the world over her womanhood.

Khelif beat Yang Liu of China 5-0 in the final of the women’s welterweight division, wrapping up the best series of fights of her boxing career. Crowds chanted her name, waved Algerian flags and roared every time she landed a punch.

After her unanimous win, Khelif jumped into her coaches’ arms, one of them putting her on his shoulders and carrying her in a victory lap as she pumped her fists and grabbed an Algerian flag from the crowd. “For eight years, this has been my dream, and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medalist,” Khelif said through an interpreter. Asked about the scrutiny, she told reporters: “That also gives my success a special taste because of those attacks.

“We are in the Olympics
to perform as athletes, and I hope that we will not see any similar attacks in future Olympics,” she said.

Fans have embraced Khelif in Paris even as she faced an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who have questioned her eligibility, claiming she was a man. It has thrust her into a larger divide over changing attitudes toward gender identity and regulations in sports.

“I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born as a woman, I live as a woman, and I am qualified.”

The IOC has repeatedly reaffirmed the two boxers’ right to compete in Paris, with president Thomas Bach personally defending Khelif and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan while calling the criticism “hate speech.”