An Olympic female boxer threw in the towel just 46 seconds into her bout on Thursday, deciding her opponent, embroiled in a gender debate, was hitting too hard.
In the women’s 66 kg class, Italy’s Angela Carini was hit by a punch from Algeria’s Imane Kherif, after which Carini signaled to her corner to end the fight.
After the 25-year-old Carini, Abandoned When the battle was over and Kerif was raising his hands in victory, Karini collapsed. tears She then got on her knees and left the ring.
“She took one punch and quit. She told me she didn’t feel like she could fight.”
Carini and his coach spoke to an Italian news agency. Answer After the match, he explained what happened.
“I went in the ring to fight,” Carini said, “not to give up, but one punch hurt so much that I decided enough was enough.”
“I’m going out there with my head held high,” she added.
Her coach, Emanuele Renzini, said Carini had not planned in advance to withdraw from the match.
“It would have been easier for her not to play, because the whole of Italy had been asking her not to play for many days,” Renzini said, “but Angela was motivated and wanted to play.”
He added: “Of course, when she faced her opponent with a draw she said ‘it’s not fair’. But today was not a planned fight. She gave up after one punch. She told me she didn’t feel like she could fight.”
As previously reported by The Blaze News, the International Boxing Association disqualified Kherif from the 2023 world championships. At the time, IBA president Umar Kremlev said Kherif has “XY chromosomes” – men have XY chromosomes and women have XX chromosomes.
However, the International Olympic Committee decided to remove the IBA as the governing body in June 2023 and make the IOC’s Paris 2024 boxing unit the governing body. The Paris boxing unit’s rules are said to be more relaxed. The Guardian reported The IOC recorded Khelib’s disqualification in its internal system, saying he was “disqualified for not meeting the eligibility criteria due to high testosterone levels, just hours before he was due to compete for gold against Yang Liu at the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, India.”
Kherif reportedly blamed a “conspiracy” against Algeria for all the gender-related accusations.
“People are plotting so that the Algerian flag is not raised and so that Algeria does not win the gold medal,” Kherif said.
The Algerian Olympic Committee also said the allegations about Kherif’s gender were “baseless”. Fox News.
“COA strongly condemns the unethical targeting and denigration of our esteemed athlete, Imane Kheriff, by some foreign media outlets with baseless propaganda,” the commission said on Wednesday. “Such attacks on her personality and dignity are highly unjustified, especially at a time when she is preparing to reach the pinnacle of her career at the Olympic Games. COA has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion.”
ANSA cited a gay-centered Italian news agency that claimed Kherif was in fact “intersex” and not transgender.
“Contrary to circulating reports, Algerian athlete Imane Kherif is not a transgender woman,” said Rosario Coco of Gaynet Communications. “According to the information we have about her, she has always lived her social life as a woman and is an intersex person with a sports background in women’s competitions.”
Khelif is not the only fighter in the women’s boxing division to be embroiled in this type of controversy.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting will face Uzbekistan’s Shitra Turdybekova. 57 kg Top 16 on Friday.
The IOC said Lin had been “stripped of his bronze medal” at the 2023 world championships “because he did not meet the eligibility requirements based on the results of his biochemical test”.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censorship and sign up for our newsletter to receive stories like this directly to your inbox. Register here!
