AP wins the biggest story from the Olympics with exclusive interview of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif

By Kaddour Habbari, Tarek Boussaha, Vadim Ghirda, Greg Beacham, Courtney Bonnell, Casey Silvestri and Lujain Jo

AP and SNTV, AP’s sports video partner, combined for one of the biggest scoops of the Olympic Games by landing an exclusive one-on-one interview with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after her win on Aug. 4 against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary to guarantee her a medal in Paris. 

The Games have had plenty of headline-grabbing storylines — from a dazzling and provocative opening ceremony to dirty water in the Seine River and Simone Biles’ return to the top of Olympic gymnastics, but no story received more international attention than that of Khelif, the Algerian boxer who was caught up in the culture wars when misconceptions and disinformation about her gender spread on social media after her first opponent abandoned their fight.

Thanks to contacts from years of covering sports in Algeria and the Middle East, SNTV video journalists Kaddour Habbari and Tarek Boussaha secured the interview with Khelif and her coach Mohammed Chaoua Imen, setting an all-hands-on-deck multiformat collaboration in motion.

AP photographer Vadim Ghirda was the only other journalist allowed in the interview, while AP sportswriter Greg Beacham, who covered the Khelif story from Day 1, worked closely with editor Courtney Bonnell and video journalist Lujain Jo to craft questions and write the story.

Jo, an Arabic speaker, was instrumental in transcribing and translating the interview from the original Arabic to English, and provided fast quotes, context and background. Digital video manager Casey Silvestri edited clips for social media, and digital editors in the U.S. worked on APNews push alerts and social media posts.

The results had impact. Within a few hours, AP moved a story with Khelif’s first and only interview since her case became global news, where she called for an end to the bullying and said that the misconceptions about her gender “harm human dignity”.

APTN also distributed a 6-minute video to customers and videos were posted to APNews.com and AP’s social media platforms.

The exclusive resonated immediately, with countless news organizations — including the BBC, CNN, Washington Post, The Telegraph, ESPN and People Magazine.

The story had over 200,000 page views on apnews.com and was used and quoted by hundreds of news outlets around the world. 

For owning the biggest story of the Olympic Games and putting AP ahead of the competition, Habbari, Boussaha, Ghirda, Beacham, Bonnell, Jo and Silvestri earn this week’s Best of the AP — Second Winner.