Paris Olympics 2024: Who Is Imane Khelif, Algeria Boxer In The Middle Of Gender Row
A major gender row exploded at the Paris Olympics 2024 after controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif punced out Italian pugilist Angela Carini in just 46 second in their 66kg women’s boxing clash on Thursday. Khelif had failed the gender eligibility test last year and was disqualified from competing by the International Boxing Association (IBA), a body which has been banned by the International Olympic Council (IOC).
The Italian boxer walked away from her Algerian opponent and went to her corner on 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.
“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,” a tearful Carini said.
JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter books, reacted to the ‘gender row’ during the match and said, “Explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment.”
Carini later received a visit from Italian Prime Minister 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.”
Absolutely https://t.co/twccUEOW9e
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2024
Imane Khelif was banned from 2023 World Boxing Championships
The Algerian boxer was incidentally disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her presence at the Paris Olympics 2024 has divided the world.
Khelif is an accomplished amateur who won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 world championships. The IBA — which has been banned from the Olympics since 2019 after years of disputes with the IOC — disqualified her from last year’s championships shortly before her gold-medal match because of what it claimed were elevated levels of testosterone.
The IOC allowed two boxers, who failed the gender eligibility tests for the World Boxing Championships (WBC), to be made eligible to compete in the Paris Olympics 2024. Apart from Khelif, Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting lost her bronze medal at the WBC 2023 in New Delhi after she too failed to meet the criteria.
The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout’s sudden end. “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.
Khelif’s passport says she is female. 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.”
After years of competition in amateur tournaments around the world, Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan suddenly have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris. Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.
Lin begins her Paris run on Friday. She fights Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in her opening bout after receiving a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the 57-kilogram category, although Olympic seeding is frequently not indicative of the top medal contenders in a division.
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.”
Khelif and Lin are two-time Olympians who fought in the Tokyo Olympics 2021. Lin has been an elite-level amateur boxer for a decade and Khelif for six years. The IOC repeatedly defended the boxers’ right to compete this week. Olympic boxing reached gender parity for the first time this year, with 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris.
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.
The IBA, on the other hand, has aggressively seized on the two boxers’ presence in Paris to criticize the IOC. After the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the IOC’s ban earlier this year, the IBA appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal in a last-gasp attempt to beat the IOC.
The banned body issued a statement Wednesday in which it claimed both boxers did not have a ‘testosterone examination’ last year but were ‘subject to a separate and recognized test’ for their disqualification. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential,” refusing to explain it.
The IBA disregarded IOC recommendations and allowed Russian fighters to compete at the 2023 world championships under the Russian flag. The governing body then disqualified Khelif only after Khelif defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva during the tournament