Imane Khelif won her first boxing match at the Paris Olympics when her opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, quit the match after one hit to the nose.
Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting have been at the center of a brewing controversy after they were barred from female competition in 2023 following alleged failed gender-eligibility tests. In addition, the International Boxing Assn. said Khelif has male XY chromosomes, following a DNA test. The International Olympic Committee, for seemingly complicated reasons, gave the two fighters the green light to compete.
Carini refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the match and gave tear-filled comments to the media.
Carini said she’s not qualified to decide if Khelif should be eligible to compete in the female category. Yet she said the punch from Khelif was so strong she did not feel safe in the ring.
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“I felt a severe pain in my nose,” she said. “I said ‘Enough,’ because I didn’t want to… I couldn’t finish the match.”
Asked if she should have refused to compete at all, Carini said she would not have accepted that.
“Regardless of the person I had in front of me, which doesn’t interest me, regardless of all the controversy, I just wanted to win,” she said. “I wanted to face the person that I had in front of me and to fight.”
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Interestingly, Carini did not call Khelif a “woman,” but rather a “person.”
The Italian boxer’s decision to abandon the match has ignited an even hotter firestorm of criticism of Khelif, as well as the IOC for allowing her to fight. Carini’s observation that Khelif’s punch was unsafe for her is being used to affirm the worst fears some people are espousing that Khelif is indeed a man.
Others are labeling the anti-Khelif comments as sexist, transphobic and racist.
Khelif for her part has stayed virtually silent, only telling the BBC, “I am here for gold. I will fight anybody. I will fight them all.”
However, the Algerian Olympic Committee has been more outspoken since the start of the Olympics, calling the allegations that Khelif is a man “baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”
Previously, Khelif echoed that sentiment, claiming the allegations were an attempt to stop the Algerian flag from being lifted at an international sporting event.
Algeria has won 17 total medals at the Olympics, including five gold.
Lin competes in her first Paris Olympics bout on Friday. Both women competed at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021 without any known public controversy. Khelif finished fifth in the 60K division (about 132 pounds), while Lin finished ninth in the 57K division (about 125 pounds).
As the Olympics continue in Paris, and Khelif quite possibly marches toward the medal round, this controversy will continue. If more boxers abandon their matches against Khelif, the IOC will have a full-blown mutiny on its hands.
