Boxer ‘deemed male’ leaves Italian feminine fighter in tears at Olympics
A boxer deemed a ‘biological male’ today won against an Italian woman in one of the most controversial Olympic bouts ever.
The fight took 46 seconds and her Italian opponent threw her helmet onto the floor as the fight was abandoned.
She refused the handshake, fell to the canvas and appeared to wipe away a tear.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, 25, fought Italy’s Angela Carini, 25 despite being banned from a major boxing contest before the Olympics.
Carini appeared to wipe away a tear after being hit twice and walking out of the fight.
Italy ’s Angela Carini,25, dropped to her knees in tears after losing the fight to her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif in just 46 seconds
Carini (pictured) was mauled in the clash – which comes amid a gender row over her opponent, who was banned from fighting at the world championships after being deemed ‘biologically male’
Controversial Algerian fighter Imane Khelif (centre) clashed with Carini in this morning’s Olympic welterweight bout
It was unclear immediately whether the Italian had stopped the fight as a protest against her opponent, or felt that the punches she received were too hard.
Khelif was thrown out of last year’s world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.
But despite her gender test problems, she was admitted to the Olympics amid a huge furore.
Olympics officials at Paris 2024 have accepted her as a female and state so in her official games biography.
Another female boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan was also disqualified from the 2023 women’s boxing world championships for failing a gender eligibility test.
Former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan – now president of the Professional Boxing Association – said it was `shocking’ and `pathetic’ decision to allow ‘a man’ to fight women.
Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) has said after a series of DNA-tests the association ‘uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretended to be women.
Kremlev claimed that the tests ‘proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.’
Italy’s sports minister Andrea Abodi raised concerns about Khelif competing , but Angela Carini was on record as saying that ‘respect’ of her opponents was her mantra.
She said: ‘Boxing is a sport that teaches you to have respect for your opponent. It can be a weapon in life, but only for defence. It cannot and must not become an abuse. Like any sport, it can instead become a vehicle for venting anger and pain.’
Algeria’s Olympic Committee condemned as ‘baseless’ the attacks on their boxer after questions were raised over her participation at the Paris Olympics.
But Khelif, who competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, only fell into controversy after failing the tests last year in New Delhi.
She received resounding applause from staunch Algerian supporters as she entered the ring, but there were several boos.
At 5.10 and two inches taller than her police officer opponent, Khelif showed off her power with a series of powerful punches early in the three round contest.
But it was over in less than a minute.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
