Algeria boxer who had gender test issue wins first Olympic fight in Paris when opponent quits

Imane Khelif of Algeria defeated Angela Carini of Italy in just 46 seconds to win her first Olympic boxing match on Thursday.

After failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, Khelif was disqualified from the world championships in 2023, and her participation in the Paris Olympics has become a contentious issue.

In Olympic boxing, Carini left the fight after only a few punches were exchanged with Khelif, which is extremely unusual. Before Carini resigned, her headgear reportedly fell off at least once. Following the announcement of the outcome, Carini wept on her knees in the ring and did not shake Khelif’s hand.

Carini, who was still crying, said she quit because the first punches hurt so much in her nose. Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said that she was not refusing to fight Khelif and was not making a political statement.

According to Carini, “I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said “enough” because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, and I couldn’t finish the match.”

In addition, Carini asserted that she is not qualified to determine whether Khelif should be permitted to compete, but she did not object to her challenge.

“Haven’t arrived to pass judgment or condemn,” Carini said. ” It is not up to me to decide whether an athlete is doing this right or wrong, in that sense. I just took care of my business as a fighter. I fought when I entered the ring. I did it with my head held high and with a wrecked heart for not having completed the last kilometer.”

Khelif is an accomplished amateur who competed in the 2022 world championships of the International Boxing Association and won a silver medal. She was disqualified from the championships the previous year by the same governing body shortly before her gold-medal match due to what it claimed were elevated testosterone levels.

The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Field to a melody of cheers, yet the group was confounded by the session’s unexpected end. Khelif, who battles again Saturday, didn’t address correspondents.

Carini stated, “I am heartbroken because I am a fighter.” My dad helped me to be a fighter. I have always entered the fight with integrity, and I have always been loyal to my country. This time, however, I was unable to continue fighting, so I ended the match.

Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan abruptly have gotten gigantic examination for their presence in Paris following quite a while of novice rivalry. Lin came out on top for IBA big showdowns in 2018 and 2022, yet the overseeing body stripped her of a bronze decoration last year since it guaranteed she neglected to meet vague qualification necessities in a biochemical test.

After receiving a bye in the first round, Lin will fight Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in her first Paris fight on Friday.

The Algerian Olympic Committee condemned the “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets” in a statement released on Wednesday.

Italian Head Giorgia Meloni, who was visiting Italy competitors in the Olympic Town on Thursday, voiced analysis that Carini needed to box Khelif, saying she had starting around 2021 went against permitting competitors with “hereditarily male” qualities to go up against ladies.

Meloni stated, “In an effort to not discriminate, we have to pay attention that we are actually discriminating” against women’s rights.

She stated that protecting athletes’ rights was necessary to ensure that they compete on an equal playing field.

“In these things what counts is your commitment, your head and character, yet it likewise counts having an equality of arms,” Meloni said.

Two-time Olympians Khelif and Lin fought without incident at the Tokyo Games. Khelif and Lin have been amateur boxers at the elite level for six years each. They were permitted to contend in Paris by the IOC team, which has run the beyond two Olympic boxing competitions.

Their right to compete was defended on Tuesday by the IOC. With 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris this year, Olympic boxing achieved gender parity for the first time.

“Everybody contending in the ladies’ classification is consenting to the opposition qualification rules,” IOC representative Imprint Adams said. ” It is stated that they are female in their passports and that this is the case.

Despite the fact that Olympic seeding frequently does not indicate the top medal contenders in a division, Lin is the top seed in the 57-kilogram category.

Over the past three years, the International Cycling Union, World Aquatics, and World Athletics have all updated their gender rules. The rules for athletes with differences in sex development were also tightened last year by the track body.

The IOC claimed that the gender-related rules that were in place at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 were the basis for its decisions regarding boxers’ eligibility.

The IBA has been excluded from the previous two Olympics due to years of governance issues, a lack of financial transparency, and numerous alleged instances of corruption in judging and refereeing. As a result, the IOC is in charge of boxing in Paris.

The IBA, whose president is Russian Umar Kremlev, has had its Olympic status revoked by the IOC. He moved a lot of the IBA’s operations to Russia and made the state-owned Gazprom in Russia its primary sponsor.

Since then, more than 320 members of the IBA have left. These people have joined a new organization called World Boxing, which wants to be recognized by the IOC as the sport’s governing body in time for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

The IBA has forcefully held onto on the fighters’ presence in Paris to censure the IOC. The IBA filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the IOC’s ban earlier this year.

The banned body said in a statement on Wednesday that the two boxers were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification rather than having a “testosterone examination” last year. The IBA refused to explain the test’s “specifics remain confidential.”

This week, women’s boxers have been asked a lot of questions about Khelif and Lin. Several people have voiced their concern, while others have urged further investigation into a clearly complex issue.

“I disagree with that being permitted, particularly in battle sports as it tends to be extraordinarily risky,” Australia middleweight Caitlin Parker said. ” However, my current focus is on winning each battle. Dislike I haven’t competed with folks previously, yet it very well may be hazardous for battle sports, and it ought to be genuinely investigated. It’s good that these things are coming to light and that more research is being done on them.

They will have more advantages biologically and genetically. Sporting combat can be dangerous. All that matters is fairness. In sports, we all want fairness.