Algeria’s Imane Khelif, a boxer who was disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships for failing to meet unspecified gender eligibility criteria, won a women’s opening Olympics match in Paris on Aug. 1 against Italy’s Angela Carini.
The match between Khelif and Carini lasted a mere 46 seconds, and the two opponents exchanged only a few punches before Carini walked away and abandoned the fight.
A tearful Carini—who is about two inches shorter than her opponent—said she ended the match because she “felt a strong pain” in her nose after the opening punches.
“You all saw my nose that started bleeding. I didn’t lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity. I am a mature woman, the ring is my life,” Carini said in a post-match interview.
“I’ve always been very instinctive, but when I feel something is not going well, it’s not a surrender but having the maturity to stop.”
Carini didn’t shake Khelif’s hand following the conclusion of the match, and she was seen crying in the center of the ring on her knees as she said in Italian, “It’s not fair.”
Previous Failure to Meet Eligibility Requirements
However, Khelif’s victory was met with controversy. At last year’s women’s boxing world championships in New Delhi, India, the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting—a three-time medalist—because they failed to meet eligibility rules that prevent athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.“This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA stated.
According to the sports organization, the disqualification was based on two tests conducted on both athletes during the world championships in Istanbul in 2022 and New Delhi in 2023.
The IBA added that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.”
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that the two boxers would be eligible to compete in Paris after the Olympic body stripped the IBA of international recognition in June 2023 over issues related to governance, finance, and ethics.
Yu Ting is due to face Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in the 57-kilogram featherweight division on Aug. 2.
DSDs are a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones, and reproductive organs. Some people with DSDs are raised as female but have XY sex chromosomes and blood testosterone levels in the male range.
The IBA said in its statement that it isn’t involved in the IOC’s “differing regulations,” adding that the Olympic body’s decision raises “serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety.”
“What I would say is that this involves real people, and we are talking about real people’s lives here,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said in the organization’s defense of allowing the two boxers to compete. Adams added that the two have competed over the years and have both lost and won in women’s boxing.
Italy Responds
Speaking out following her loss, Carini said she’s not qualified to decide whether Khelif should be allowed to compete and doesn’t harbor any ill feelings toward the Algerian.“I am not here to judge or pass judgment,” she said. “If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”
“I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions,” Ms. Meloni said.
“And not because you want to discriminate against someone, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms.”
