A boxer deemed a ‘biological male’ today won against an Italian woman in one of the most controversial Olympic bouts ever.
The fight between Italy’s Angela Carini and her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif took just 46 seconds, with the Italian throwing her helmet onto the floor as the clash was abandoned, yelling: ‘This is unjust.’
The 25-year-old refused the handshake and fell to the canvas sobbing having received just two punches from Khelif – who had been banned from a major boxing contest before the Olympics.
Khelif was thrown out of last year’s world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.
After the match was stopped, the referee raised Khelif’s hand in the air. But a visibly furious Carini yanked her own hand away from the fight official and walked off.
Ignoring the Algerian, the Italian fighter then plunged to her knees and burst into tears as she said she had never felt such strong blows in a contest before.
Speaking after the match, the heartbroken Italian said: ‘I’m used to suffering. I’ve never taken a punch like that, it’s impossible to continue. I’m nobody to say it’s illegal.
‘I got into the ring to fight. But I didn’t feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.’
She said she did not walk away from the fight as a protest against her opponent’s inclusion, but that was a decision for the Olympics to consider.
She was taken away for medical assessment to examine the seriousness of her facial injuries which included a bruised nose.
Do you think this was a fair match-up?YesNoUnsure
Carini added: ‘I entered the ring and I told myself I have to take out all of myself independently from the person I had in front of me.
‘And honestly, I don’t care. I said to myself, ‘This is my Olympics’. Independently, from all controversy, I just wanted to carry on and win.’
‘I am not one that easily surrenders. Even if they told me, let’s not fight, I would not have accepted it.
‘I am a fighter. My father taught me to be a warrior. When I am in the ring, I use that mindset, the mindset of a warrior, a winning mindset. This time I couldn’t make it.
‘You all saw my nose that started bleeding. I didn’t lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity.’
‘I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn’t judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.
‘I simply entered the ring to fight and to fight for my dream. It didn’t happen. Evidently, God and my father wanted this and I accept it.
‘I am not in the position of saying this is right or wrong. I am not. I did my job as a boxer, entering the ring and fighting. I didn’t manage to, but I am exiting with my head held high and with a broken heart.
‘I am a mature woman, the ring is my life. I’ve always been very instinctive, but when I feel something is not going well, it’s not a surrender but having the maturity to stop.’
Carini’s coach in the mix zone after the fight said: ‘I don’t know if her nose is broken. I have to speak with the girl. But many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: ‘Don’t go please: it’s a man, it’s dangerous for you.’
After the fight, the Algerian Boxing Federation gloated about Khelif’s victory, posting on Facebook: ‘Congratulations to the Algerian boxer Iman Khalif, who responds strongly in the ring and qualifies for the quarterfinals, after defeating the Italian Angelina Carini in less than 46 seconds, effortlessly.’
Speaking as she left the ring, the Algerian boxer added: ‘God willing, this was the first victory. God is willing me to the golden one.’
Bosses at the IOC are now facing a furious backlash following the fight, with former Prime Minister Liz Truss blasting the clash.
Writing on Twitter, the former Tory MP said: ‘When will this madness stop? Men cannot become women. Why is the British Government not objecting to this?’
British Olympic hero Sharron Davies also waded into the controversy, raging: ‘This is shocking. The IOC are a bloody disgrace. In effect legalising beating up females. This must stop!!! What the hell’s the matter with them?’
While Harry Potter author JK Rowling branded the contest ‘insanity’. In a post yesterday, the gender-critical author wrote: ‘What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?’
Posting a video of the fight today, the author added: ‘Watch this (whole thread), then explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn’t sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organisers who allowed this to happen, this is men revelling in their power over women.’
Carini is an Italian police officer with the Fiamme Oro.
Her mantra is: ‘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.’
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 a ‘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.
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.
