ALGERIAN boxer Imane Khelif, one of the two boxers at the centre of the gender eligibility saga at the Paris 2024 Olympics, is through to the quarter-finals of the women’s 66kg after her opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, abandoned their bout in the first round today.
Khelif is one of two athletes who have been cleared to compete in the women’s boxing event in Paris, after having been disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) — which did not organise the World Championships but is in charge of the boxing at Paris 2024 — said welterweight Khelif was disqualified in India because of elevated levels of testosterone, which is the primary male sex hormone.
After being punched in the face inside 30 seconds, Carini went to the corner for her coach to fix her headgear but after briefly resuming, refused to continue with the fight.
The bout lasted just 46 seconds.
Carini was in tears as she faced the media after the bout.
“I wasn’t able to finish the match, I felt a strong pain to my nose and I said [to myself] for the experience that I have and the maturity as a woman that I have, I said I hope my nation won’t take it badly, I hope my dad won’t take it badly – but I stopped, I said stop for myself,” she told BBC Sport.
“It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.
“I didn’t have fear, I don’t fear the ring. I don’t fear taking the blows. But this time there’s an end for everything, and I put an end to this match, because I wasn’t able to [continue].”
Khelif, who has nine defeats on her record, told BBC Sport: “I’m here for the gold – I fight everybody.”
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who was stripped of a bronze medal at last year’s World Championships after failing a gender eligibility test, will begin her campaign in Paris tomorrow.
The IOC has insisted that Khelif and Yu-ting are eligible, adding that all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.
On Tuesday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived – they competed in Tokyo.”
The 2023 World Championships, at which Khelif and Lin were disqualified, were organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), the BBC reported.
But last June, the Russia-led body was stripped of its status as the sport’s world governing body by the IOC, which organised the boxing competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and is doing so again for Paris 2024
