A women’s boxing match at the Paris Olympics has triggered international condemnation and questions about the fairness of letting a “biological male” compete in the ring.
Italy’s Angela Carini faced off against Algeria’s Imane Khelif on Thursday, in the welterweight (66kg) category, but lasted just 45 seconds. After taking two big punches to the face, Carini threw down her helmet and forfeited the bout, crying “this is unjust!”
Khelif was disqualified from the women’s world championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests.
Carini yanked her hand away as the referee declared Khelif the winner, then dropped to her knees and burst into tears.
“I’m used to suffering. I’ve never taken a punch like that, it was impossible to continue,” she said after the match.
Carini has faced an outpouring of solidarity from critics of transgenderism around the world, who denounced Khelif as a biological man and protested the bout as unfair.
“This is sickening. This is a travesty. Doesn’t matter what you believe. This is wrong and dangerous,” said Jake Paul, a Youtuber turned professional boxer.
“A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her,” author J.K. Rowling told the International Olympic Committee (IOC), adding that the 2024 Olympics “will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.”
American college swimmer Riley Gaines started a hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) “I stand with Angela Carini,” which was endorsed by the platform owner, Elon Musk.
“All the competitors comply with the eligibility rules,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams insisted on Thursday. “And, by the way, this is not a transgender issue.”
Khelif had been disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023 as a biological male. The boxer appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but “withdrew the appeal during the process,” the IBA said on Wednesday. The association protested the IOC decision to allow Khelif to compete in Paris, arguing that its rules “raise serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety.”
The IOC has ruled that both Khelif and Lin Tu-ting – a boxer representing Chinese Taipei – “are women according to their passports.” The Olympic body has also excluded the IBA from the Paris games, in part because the association is based in Russia.
According to Algeria, Khelif is not transgender at all but a woman affected by a condition known as hyperandrogenism, characterized by a high level of testosterone and the presence of XY chromosomes.
“We condemn the unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets,” the Algerian Olympic Committee said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Paris Olympics have come under a barrage of criticism over last Friday’s opening ceremony, which included homosexuals, transsexuals and drag queens simulating a Bacchanalia patterned after Leonardo da Vinci’s famous mural ‘The Last Supper.’