Italian boxer Angela Carini decided to leave the ring just 46 seconds after a fight started in the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games, stunned by a right hook from the Algerian representative, Imane Khelif.
After the blow he received this Thursday, August 1st, Carini raised his arm and headed to his corner to speak with his coach, who signaled with his hands to the referee that he was throwing in the towel. The referee called both fighters to the center of the ring and raised Khelif's arm as the winner in the welterweight round of 16 (between 63.5 and 66.6 kg), while Carini fell to his knees in tears from the pain of the blow and the helplessness of the moment.
The Italian, who had a bloodstain on her shorts, said that not shaking Khelif's hand was not a deliberate act or a political message. Furthermore, she added after the incident: "I felt a lot of pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said 'enough is enough', because I didn't want to, I didn't want to, I couldn't finish the fight".
Then Carini added that "I am not one to judge or make a decision, if this girl is here, there must be a reason."
Doubts and controversies
The moment undoubtedly generated controversy at the grand event and throughout the sports universe, as Khelif's presence was highly questioned, even before the start of the games, as she was the protagonist of a disqualification in the past 2023, by the International Boxing Association, after high levels of testosterone were detected in her body.
The presence of Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting in Paris has been a subject of analysis despite having competed for years at the amateur level. Lin won the AIB World Championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of her bronze medal from last year claiming she did not meet unspecified eligibility requirements related to a biochemical analysis.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), organizer of the Paris 2024 Games, has other parameters and only requires athletes to provide their passport to determine their gender.
The Algerian Olympic Committee released a statement on Wednesday condemning what they described as "lies" and "unethical and defamatory attacks on our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with unfounded propaganda by certain foreign media outlets".
According to Amnesty International, the term intersex “encompasses a broad group of people whose sexual characteristics fall outside the typical binary norms of male or female. These characteristics may include (...) hormone levels and sex chromosomes or secondary sexual characteristics that become apparent during puberty.”