Imane Khelif’s next opponent has declared that if “she or he is a man” it would only prove a greater victory after a 46-second bout and conflicting gender eligibility rules rocked the Paris Games.
Algerian Khelif forced Angela Carini to sensationally abandon her Olympic 66kg boxing bout on Thursday in the first round, the Italian saying post-fight that she needed to “safeguard her life”.
Kheli and Taiwan’s Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan were disqualified from last year’s International Boxing Association-run world championships after they failed gender eligibility test and were deemed to have a competitive advantage.
That test remains unspecified, but the IBA did clarify that neither underwent testosterone examinations. The IBA claimed the boxers’ chromosome tests came back as XY, which is typically the male chromosome, rather than a female’s XX.
The International Olympic Committee have taken over from the IBA as boxing’s sanctioning body – ironically due to integrity concerns – and, under different criteria, have allowed both to compete.
Australia’s Marissa Williamson’s comprehensive loss meant she avoided a next-up encounter with the Algerian, who will instead meet historic Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori in a Saturday quarter-final that’s captured the world’s attention.
“I’m not scared,” Hamori said ahead of their first meeting, before adding that she didn’t understand why Carini had thrown in the towel.
“I don’t care about the story … if she or he is a man it’ll be a bigger victory for me if I will win. So let’s do it.
“It’s going to be a great fight and I hope I will win. I can’t wait.”
As the sport fights for its Olympic future it has become a lightning rod for criticism, Williamson backing her Australia boxing captain, Caitlin Parker, who labelled it “dangerous”.
It was a view backed by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, and evident in Thursday’s unusually early stoppage.
Carini’s headgear became dislodged twice after punches before she quit and she refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the decision was announced.
She cried in the ring before leaving.
“She felt pain in the nose and said to me, ‘I don’t want to fight more’,” her Italian coach Emanuele Renzini told reporters in broken English.
“People say, ‘Don’t go, it’s dangerous, she’s a man’. Maybe it’s this (why she quit).
“It’s not my decision, It’s a difficult decision. I don’t want to be the CEO at the moment.”
Renzini and Italy’s boxing team leader Alberto Tappa were seen in discussion with IOC officials in the hours after Carini’s fight.
“We hope for the future that it will be more clear, for all the teams,” Tappa said of a conversation that stretched beyond the eligibility rules.
“We are not lucky (to draw Khelif), in the first bout, (but) you have to fight.
“The pressure … a lot of people from Italy said not to fight, to protest.”
The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout’s sudden end.
Khelif then dodged media as she briskly exited the arena, while Carini fought through tears to explain it was the injury, and not a protest, that forced her sudden abandonment.
“I felt a strong pain in my nose and … could no longer finish the match,” she said.
“I am heartbroken because I am a fighter, my father taught me to be a warrior.
“I felt all the controversy that there has been … that was not something that stopped me or blocked me mentally.”
Lin, a dual Olympian like Khelif, will begin the action on Friday, having won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022.
But the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what they termed “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”
With AP
