Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who failed gender eligibility tests in 2023 yet was nonetheless allowed to compete as a woman at this year’s Olympics, hit her first-round opponent so hard that she withdrew in just 46 seconds.
“This is unjust,” Angela Carini of Italy said after falling to her knees and slamming her headgear to the canvas.
Carini and Khelif exchanged only a few punches before Carini walked away and abandoned the bout, an extremely unusual occurrence in Olympic boxing.
Carini refused a handshake from Khelif and then ripped her hand away from the ref as Khelif’s was raised as the winner.
“I’m used to suffering,” Carini said after the fight when she spoke to reporters for 20 minutes through tears.
“I’ve never taken a punch like that, it’s impossible to continue. I’m nobody to say it’s illegal.
“I got into the ring to fight. But I didn’t feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.”
‘Don’t go, it’s a man’
Carini’s coach, Emanuel Renzini, told reporters that he was unsure if the boxer’s nose was broken and that she had been warned not to take the fight.
“Many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: ‘Don’t go please. It’s a man, it’s dangerous for you,’ ” Renzini said.
Before the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee defended the decision to let Khelif, 25, and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting into the competition after both had been disqualified from the world championships.
“All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations,” the IOC said in a statement prior to the Games.
Both had competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and failed to medal.
“I’m here for the gold,” Khelif told BBC Sport. “I fight everybody.”
The different status of Lin and Khelif at the Olympics and world championships is fallout from the years-long dispute between the IOC and the Russian-led International Boxing Association over alleged failures of governance and integrity, plus reliance on funding from state energy firm Gazprom.
“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”
The IOC-run database of about 10,700 athletes competing in Paris detailed both boxers’ experiences at the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.
Khelif was disqualified “just hours before her gold medal showdown” against a Chinese opponent “after her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria.”
At the time, IBA president Umar Kremlev said Khelif’s DNA test results “proved they had XY chromosomes.”
Khelif, whose camp initially cited “medical reasons” for the disqualification, later withdrew an appeal of the findings.
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Khelif will next fight in the Olympics quarterfinals against Hungaria’s Anna Luca Hamori on Saturday.
“I’m not scared,” said Hamori, who trounced Australia’s Marissa Williamson Pohlman in her opening fight. “I don’t care about the press story and social media. If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win.
“I’m trying to not use my phone before the fight,” Hamori added. “I don’t want to care about the comments or the story or the news. I just want to stay focused on myself. I did it before my last two fights, so I think this is the key, and we will see.”
Outrage exploded around the world, including from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“I regret it [Carini’s withdrawal] even more. I was emotional yesterday when she wrote ‘I will fight’ because the dedication, the head, the character, surely also play a role in these things,” Meloni said.
“But then it also matters to be able to compete on equal grounds and, from my point of view, it was not an even contest.”
— with wires
