AP/VILLEPINTE, France — In their 46 seconds of action in the Paris ring, Imane Khelif and Angela Carini traded a few sharp blows. Carini was certain that her Olympic debut was over by them.
A very uncommon incident in Olympic boxing, the Italian fighter quickly left her Algerian opponent and headed to her corner on Thursday.
When the referee officially raised Khelif’s hand, Carini did not shake it, but instead broke down in tears in the ring. Shortly later, a very distraught Carini said that she had resigned due to the discomfort caused by the first blows.
“My nose hurt so bad, and like a responsible boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I couldn’t finish the match and I didn’t want to,” Carini said.
After failing an unclear gender eligibility test, Khelif was barred from the 2023 world championships, and her attendance in the Paris Olympics has since sparked controversy.
Blood was visible on Carini’s trunks, but she said that she wasn’t refusing to fight Khelif or making a political statement. Carini said that she lacks the authority to determine whether Khelif ought to be let to compete.
“I simply performed as a boxer,” Carini said. “I entered the arena and engaged in combat. I accomplished it while carrying a heavy heart from not having completed the last kilometre and with my head held high.
Later, Giorgia Meloni, the premier of Italy, paid Carini a visit and consoled the boxer in a picture that was shared on Meloni’s Instagram page.
“I am confident that you, Angela, will persevere and eventually achieve your rightful rewards through hard work and perseverance,” Meloni wrote. In the end, an even competition.
At the 2022 World Boxing Association Championships, Khelif, an excellent amateur, took home a silver medal. She was disqualified from last year’s championships just before her gold-medal match by the IBA, which has been barred from the Olympics since 2019 because to years of disagreements with the IOC about alleged testosterone overabundance.
Cheers erupted as the 25-year-old stepped into the ring at the North Paris Arena, but the audience was perplexed by the abrupt conclusion of the fight. The boxer had been “very determined” to fight until the first minute, according to Italy coach Emanuele Renzini, who claimed he had discussed the contest with Carini and offered to let her out sooner.
Carini remarked, “I am a fighter, which is why I am heartbroken.” “Being a warrior is what my father taught me.” I have always entered the ring with honour and have given my all to serve my nation. And this time, I was unable to continue since I was out of fighting form, so I called the bout.
Should Khelif triumph in her quarterfinal matchup against Hungary’s first Olympic women’s boxer, Anna Luca Hamori, on Saturday, she might secure an Olympic gold.
Regarding battling Khelif, Hamori showed no anxiety.
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“I’m not afraid,” said Hamori, who defeated Australian Marissa Williamson Pohlman. The newspaper article and social media posts don’t interest me. If I prevail, it will mean more to me since she or he is a male.
Khelif’s gender is shown on her passport.
While they had previously participated in the same competition, Hamori and Khelif have never sparred. Since the issue is only getting in the way of her pursuit of gold, Hamori has said time and time again that she isn’t paying attention to it.
Before the battle, Hamori said, “I’m trying not to use my phone.” “I want to be unaffected by the news, the narrative, or the reactions. All I want to do is keep my eyes on myself. We’ll see. I believe this is the key since I did it before my past two battles.
Hamori was limited to shrugging off Carini’s resignation.
Hamori said, “She made the decision.” “I don’t understand, since I assumed that all boxers had the same mindset—to never give up. Still, she made the decision. What caused it is unknown to us. Although I know I want to accomplish this in my own life, it’s her life.
Khelif and Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan have been competing in amateur events for years, but their presence in Paris has suddenly drawn a lot of attention. Lin took first place in the IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, however the organisation disqualified her from a bronze medal in 2019 after claiming that she did not fulfil some qualifying standards in a biochemical test.
Friday marks Lin’s start of her Paris run. Though Olympic seeding is sometimes not indicative of the top medal contenders in a division, she starts her first battle against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova after earning a first-round bye. She competes in the 57-kilogram class.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Algerian Olympic Committee denounced “lies” and the “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”
Meloni, who was touring Italian athletes at the Olympic Village on Thursday, expressed disapproval of Carini’s decision to box Khelif, stating that she has been against permitting athletes who had “genetically male” traits to fight against females since 2021.
Meloni said, “We have to pay attention that, in an attempt to not discriminate, we’re actually discriminating” against the rights of women.
Olympians Khelif and Lin competed in the Tokyo Games twice each. Lin has ten years of experience as a top amateur boxer, while Khelif has six years of experience.
The right of boxers to participate this week has been frequently supported by the IOC. With 124 men and 124 women participating in Paris this year, Olympic boxing achieved gender parity for the first time.
According to the IOC, it determined a boxer’s eligibility based on the gender-specific regulations in effect at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Over the last three years, the International Cycling Union, World Aquatics, and World Athletics have all changed their gender regulations. Additionally, the track organisation tightened regulations on athletes with variations in sex development last year.
Boxing in Paris is overseen by the IOC, who removed the IBA’s Olympic accreditation after years of financial mismanagement, governance issues, and several alleged cases of corruption in the judging and officiating.
The president of the IBA is a Russian, Umar Kremlev. He shifted a large portion of the IBA’s activities to Russia and made the state-owned Russian company Gazprom its principal sponsor.
subsequently then, the IBA has lost more than thirty members, who have subsequently founded a new organisation called World Boxing. The organisation intends to become the official body overseeing boxing before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics by getting recognition from the IOC.
The two boxers’ presence in Paris has been aggressively used by the IBA as an excuse to attack the IOC. In a desperate bid to defeat the IOC, the IBA appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal earlier this year after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the IOC’s suspension.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the banned body stated that both boxers were “subject to a separate and recognised test” for their disqualification rather than having a “testosterone examination” as stated in the previous year’s report. Without providing an explanation, the IBA stated that the test’s “specifics remain confidential.”
Rumoured fighters from Russia were permitted to compete under the Russian flag at the 2023 world championships, as the IBA disregarded the IOC’s recommendations. It was only after Khelif’s victory over Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the tournament that the governing body disqualified him.