Algeria boxer Imane Khelif wins first Olympic fight when opponent Angela Carini quits

During their 46 seconds of competition in the Paris ring, Imane Khelif and Angela Carini traded a few swift punches. They were sufficient to convince Carini that her Olympic debut had come to an end.

A rare occurrence in Olympic boxing, the Italy boxer abruptly left her Algerian opponent and went to her corner on Thursday, abandoning her fight.

After the hand was officially raised by the referee, Carini did not shake Khelif’s hand, but she cried in the ring after getting down on her knees. Carini, who was still crying, said that those initial punches were to blame for her decision to quit.

According to Carini, “I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said “enough” because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, and I couldn’t finish the match.”

After failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, Khelif was disqualified from the world championships in 2023, and her participation in the Paris Olympics has become a contentious issue.

Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said that she was not refusing to fight Khelif and was not making a political statement. Additionally, Carini asserted that she is unqualified to determine whether Khelif should be permitted to compete.

Carini stated, “I just did my job as a boxer.” I fought when I entered the ring. I did it with my head held high and with a wrecked heart for not having completed the last kilometer.”

The boxer was consoled by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in a photo that was shared on Meloni’s Instagram page after Carini received a visit from her.

Meloni wrote, “I know you won’t give up, Angela,” and “I know you will win what you deserve with effort and sweat one day.” in a final competition of equals.”

Khelif is an accomplished amateur who competed in the 2022 world championships of the International Boxing Association and won a silver medal. After years of disagreements with the IOC, the IBA disqualified her from the championships last year shortly before her gold-medal match due to what it claimed were elevated testosterone levels. As a result, the IBA has been barred from competing in the Olympics since 2019.

The 25-year-old entered the North Paris Arena ring to cheers, but the sudden end of the fight confused the crowd. Emanuele Renzini, the coach of Italy, said he talked to Carini about the fight and offered to let her leave earlier, but the boxer was “very determined” to fight until the first minute.

Carini stated, “I am heartbroken because I am a fighter.” I was raised by my father to be a warrior. I have always entered the fight with integrity, and I have always been loyal to my country. This time, however, I was unable to continue fighting, so I ended the match.

If Khelif wins Saturday’s quarterfinal match against Hungary’s first Olympic women’s boxer Anna Luca Hamori, she could win an Olympic medal.

Hamori didn’t say anything about fighting Khelif.

Hamori, who defeated Australia’s Marissa Williamson Pohlman, said, “I’m not scared.” I have no interest in the news story or social media. If I win, it will be a greater victory for me if she or he is a man.

According to her passport, Khelif is a woman.

Despite competing in the same tournament before, Hamori and Khelif have never sparred. Hamori repeatedly stated that the controversy is only a hindrance to her quest for gold, so she is not paying attention to it.

Hamori stated, “I’m trying not to use my phone before the fight.” I’m not interested in the comments, the story, or the news. I just want to keep my attention on me. I did it prior to my two previous fights, so I believe this is the key, but we’ll see.

And in response to Carini’s decision to quit, Hamori could only shrug.

“It was her decision,” Hamori stated. I don’t understand why boxers keep trying because I thought their minds were the same as mine. However, she chose it. We don’t know what caused it. I know I want to do this in my own life, but it’s her life.

Khelif and Lin Yuting of Taiwan, who have been competing in amateur tournaments all over the world for years, have suddenly come under a lot of scrutiny for being in Paris. Lin won the IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body last year stripped her of a bronze medal because it claimed she failed a biochemical test to meet unspecified eligibility requirements.

Friday is Lin’s first day in Paris. She gets a bye in the first round as the No. 1 fighter and will face Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in her first fight. 1 seed in the 57-kilogram division, despite the fact that Olympic seeding rarely indicates who will win the most medals in a division.

The Algerian Olympic Committee condemned the “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets” in a statement released on Wednesday.

Meloni, who was on Thursday visiting athletes from Italy in the Olympic Village, criticized Carini for having to box Khelif, stating that she had been against allowing athletes with “genetically male” characteristics to compete against women since 2021.

Meloni stated, “In an effort to not discriminate, we have to pay attention that we are actually discriminating” against women’s rights.

Two-time Olympians Khelif and Lin fought at the Tokyo Games. Khelif and Lin have been amateur boxers at the elite level for six years each.

This week, the IOC defended the boxers’ right to compete. With 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris this year, Olympic boxing achieved gender parity for the first time.

The IOC claimed that the gender-related rules that were in place at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 were the basis for its decisions regarding boxers’ eligibility. Over the past three years, the International Cycling Union, World Aquatics, and World Athletics have all updated their gender rules. The rules for athletes with differences in sex development were also tightened last year by the track body.

The IOC has revoked the IBA’s Olympic status because of years of governance issues, a lack of financial transparency, and numerous alleged instances of corruption in judging and refereeing. As a result, the IOC is in charge of boxing in Paris.

Russian president Umar Kremlev is in charge of the IBA. He moved a lot of the IBA’s operations to Russia and made the state-owned Gazprom in Russia its primary sponsor.

Since then, more than 320 members of the IBA have left. These people have joined a new organization called World Boxing, which wants to be recognized by the IOC as the sport’s governing body in time for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

The two boxers’ presence in Paris has been aggressively used by the IBA to criticize the IOC. In a last-ditch effort to defeat the IOC, the IBA appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the IOC’s ban earlier this year.

The banned body said in a statement on Wednesday that the two boxers were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification rather than having a “testosterone examination” last year. The IBA refused to explain the test’s “specifics remain confidential.”

The IBA allowed Russian fighters to compete at the 2023 world championships under the Russian flag despite the recommendations of the IOC. Khelif was only disqualified by the governing body after he defeated Azalia Amineva, a Russian boxer, during the tournament.