September 19, 2024
VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — Imane Khelif and Angela Carini exchanged a few brisk punches in their 46 seconds of competition in the Paris ring. They were enough to persuade Carini that her Olympic debut was finished.
The Italy boxer abruptly walked away from her Algerian opponent and went to her corner Thursday, abandoning her bout — an extremely rare occurrence in Olympic boxing.
Carini didn’t shake Khelif’s hand after the referee formally raised it, but she cried in the ring after sinking to her knees. Minutes afterward, a still-tearful Carini said she quit because of the pain from those opening punches.
“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, I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said.
Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her presence at the Paris Olympics has become a divisive issue.
Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said she wasn't making a political statement and was not refusing to fight Khelif. Carini further said she is not qualified to decide whether Khelif should be allowed to compete.
“I just did my job as a boxer," Carini said. "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.”
Carini later received a visit from Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who consoled the boxer in a photo posted on Meloni's Instagram page.
“I know you won’t give up, Angela,” Meloni wrote, “and I know one day you will win what you deserve with effort and sweat. In a competition that is finally equal.”
The IBA — which has been banned from the Olympics since 2019 after years of disputes with the IOC — disqualified Khelif from last year's championships shortly before her gold-medal match because of what it claimed were elevated levels of testosterone.
Italy coach Emanuele Renzini said he discussed the matchup with Carini and offered to allow her to back out earlier, but the boxer had been “very determined” to fight until the opening minute.
“I am heartbroken because I am a fighter,” Carini said. “My father taught me to be a warrior. I have always stepped into the ring with honor and I have always (served) my country with loyalty. And this time I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t fight anymore, and so I ended the match.”
Khelif could clinch an Olympic medal with a victory in her quarterfinal bout on Saturday against Anna Luca Hamori, Hungary's first Olympic women's boxer.
Hamori expressed no concern about fighting Khelif.
“I'm not scared,” said Hamori, who trounced Marissa Williamson Pohlman of Australia. “I don't care about the press story and social media. If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win."
Hamori and Khelif have never sparred, but they have competed in the same tournament before. Hamori repeatedly said she isn't paying attention to the controversy because it's only a hindrance to her quest for gold.
“I’m trying to not use my phone before the fight,” Hamori said. “I don’t want to care about the comments or the story or the news. I just want to stay focused on myself. I did it before my last two fights, so I think this is the key, and we will see.”
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement Wednesday condemning what it termed “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”
Meloni, who was visiting Italy athletes in the Olympic Village on Thursday, voiced criticism that Carini had to box Khelif, saying she had since 2021 opposed allowing athletes with “genetically male” characteristics to compete against women.
“We have to pay attention, in an attempt to not discriminate, that we’re actually discriminating” against women’s rights, Meloni said.
The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on boxers based on the gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Several sports have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. The track body also last year tightened rules on athletes with differences in sex development.
