The fight between Italian boxer Angela Carini and Algerian transsexual boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris 2024 Olympics, this Thursday (1st), lasted just 46 seconds. This is because Carini abandoned the fight for the up to 66kg women's boxing category reporting intense pain in her nose after two punches from her “opponent”. At the time, the 25-year-old Italian threw her helmet to the ground and said “this is unfair”, before leaving the ring.
30 seconds into the fight, Carini went to her trainer to fix her helmet, but upon returning to the fight, she decided to stop altogether. The fight official held the hands of the two boxers and raised Khelif's hand in the air declaring her the winner, but the Italian took hers away and fell to her knees, sobbing.
Khelif and another trans boxer, Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, failed a gender test due to their high testosterone levels — both were born as biological men — and were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in the world championship of the last year. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) authorized participation of the two athletes at the Paris Games.
I'm leaving with my head held high
According to information from Daily Mail, after the match, the Italian athlete vented by telling the press that, although she is used to suffering, she has never been hit so hard in her life.
“I'm used to suffering. I've never been punched like that, it's impossible to continue. I'm not one to say it's illegal. I entered the ring to fight. But I didn't feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a sharp pain in my nose. I didn't give up, but one punch hurt too much, and then I said “enough”. I will leave with my head held high,” he declared.
She claims that her withdrawal from the fight was not a protest against the release that allowed Khelif to compete in the women's category, but highlighted that her decision must be considered by the Olympics.
“I didn't lose today, I just did my job as a fighter. I got in the ring, fought and couldn't. I leave with my head held high and with a broken heart. I'm a mature woman. The ring is my life. I've always been very instinctive. When I feel like something isn’t right, it’s not giving up, it’s having the maturity to stop”, said the athlete.
Despite the decision to release Khelif and Lin to compete, the IOC system itself informs that both athletes failed last year's biochemical test. Lin Yu-ting debuts her first fight at the Paris Games this Friday (2), competing in the women's under-57kg category.
The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, defined Khelif as “man”. “It seems un-Olympian for a man to fight a woman,” he declared.
