During the women welterweight event at the Paris Olympics 2024, the Italian boxer Angela Carini came out of the ring just 46 seconds and abandoned her women's 66kg bout against Algerian Imane Khelif on August 1, Thursday. And, this sparked huge controversy at the Games.
Angela Carini is a 25-year-old Italian boxer, who is playing her second Olympic Games in Paris. She had to leave the ring in tears after a punch from her Algerian opponent caused significant pain on the nose area.
The Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is one of the two boxers who are allowed to fight at the Paris Olympics despite being disqualified from the women’s world championships last year in Delhi for failing testosterone and gender eligibility tests. She had represented her nation also in Tokyo 2020.
Carini and Khelif exchanged only a few punches before the Italian was forced to quit the bout, which is highly unusual in Olympic boxing. Carini's headgear came loose twice during the match, and she ultimately gave up due to severe pain in her nose after one of the punches from the Algerian.
The global reaction has been critical, especially given that Khelif had previously failed two gender tests. Many are labelling the situation as unfair, with prominent figures such as Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls suggesting that this was not a contest between equals.
After the match ended in controversy, Imane Khelif speaking with BBC said, "I am here for gold, and I will fight anybody, I will fight them all.”
Lin Yu-ting, is a Taiwanese boxer who has also faced gender test issues, is competing in her second Summer Games. Both she and Imane Khelif finished outside the medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Lin will face Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the round of 16 match of women's featherweight event on Friday, 2nd August.
Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey won the gold medal in the women's welterweight event at the Tokyo Olympics.
