In one of the most shaming episodes in Olympic history, Italy’s Angela Carini was forced after only 46 seconds to abandon a fight against an Algerian boxer who had failed two sex tests, claiming she had been hit so hard by Imane Khelif that she feared for her life.
There was widespread and immediate condemnation of the International Olympic Committee for how it had placed Carini in a position of extreme danger by pitting her against Imane Khelif, a biological male, to the point where she said that she “couldn’t breathe anymore”. She could be heard telling her corner during the fight: “Non è giusto” (“It’s not fair”).
Khelif was allowed to compete at these Paris Games despite being thrown out of last year’s world championships in Delhi for failing a testosterone test. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who fights on Friday, was disqualified for the same reason. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association, said that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. XY is the male chromosomal make-up, while female is XX.
The bout was already fiercely controversial before a punch was thrown, with the IOC under intense pressure to justify how Carini could be allowed to enter a boxing ring when her safety could not be guaranteed. The harrowing scenes here at North Paris Arena immediately showed such fears were justified. A first punch from Khelif loosened the chinstrap on Carini’s headgear, before a second struck her on her chin and splashed blood over her shorts.
Carini, 25, was distraught in the aftermath, disclosing that she had feared for her life. Having crumpled to the canvas, she said, with tears streaming down her face: “I am heartbroken. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this. After the second blow to the nose, I couldn’t breathe anymore. I went to my coach and said ‘enough’. It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.”
A United Nations expert unequivocally condemned the Olympic rules that enabled the bout to take place. Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said: “Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex.”
Emanuele Renzini, Carini’s coach, was adamant that the decision to quit the bout was not premeditated. “It would have been easier not to show up, because all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days,” he said.
“I hope my nation won’t take it badly,” Carini said. On the contrary, Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, denounced the IOC for failing to intervene. “It is a fact that with the levels of testosterone present in the Algerian athlete, the race at the start does not seem fair,” she said, explaining that she had opposed the IOC’s stance “for years”.
“The fact that Angela withdrew makes me even more sad. I was emotional when she wrote, ‘I will fight’, because, in these things, dedication, head and character also count. This, from my point of view, was not a competition on equal terms.”
Khelif: ‘I am here for gold. I’ll fight anyone’
Boxing is a sport with one of the most pronounced performance differences between the sexes. An article published in 2020 in the Journal of Experimental Biology documented how men punch, on average, 2.6 times harder than women due to immutable advantages in shoulder width and bicep strength.
The IOC had known all about the damage that Khelif was capable of inflicting. During a fight in Guadalajara in December 2022, the Algerian landed shots of such force on Mexico’s Brianda Tamara that the beaten fighter said she was relieved to escape the ring alive. “I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.”
Despite this, the IOC decided that Khelif met the criteria to compete in the women’s category in Paris.
Khelif, 25, was hastened through the interview area by the Algerian delegation and unrepentant about wrapping up victory within one minute, declaring: “I am here for gold. I’ll fight anyone.”
The next opponent for Khelif in the women’s welterweight division is Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, 23. She maintained she was undeterred about walking into a rapidly growing scandal. “I’m not scared,” she said. “If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win. So let’s do it. I can’t wait for that fight.”
‘Profoundly unfair on women and girls’
Beyond this cavernous arena on Paris’ northern outskirts, the outrage intensified. Barry McGuigan, the former world featherweight champion, argued that Khelif’s victory over Carini had been “shocking, dangerous and profoundly unfair on women and girls”. “IOC hang your head in shame,” he said.
Author JK Rowling, a consistent advocate for women’s sport to be reserved exclusively for those born female, told the IOC: “A young female boxer has just had everything she has worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring for her. You’re a disgrace, your safeguarding is a joke, and Paris 2024 will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.”
Andy Murray’s mother Judy fumed that Carini’s defeat should “not be allowed to happen” and called for swab tests to be reintroduced.
Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner Rosie Duffield called for the contest between Khelif and Hamori to be scrapped. “Given the widespread outrage and distress caused by what we saw today, the scheduled fight should be called off in order for the IOC and relevant sporting bodies to urgently review the situation.”
Even in the face of such fury, the IOC reiterated that Khelif would be kept in the Olympics. Describing the IBA’s previous action against the boxer as “arbitrary”, it said: “Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition. Any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence.”
