Italian boxer Angela Carini lasted just 46 seconds before quitting her Olympic bout against Algeria’s Imane Khelif.
“I had to preserve my life,” she said tearfully to BBC Sport in the North Paris Arena.
Source: Entertainment – Mediacorp on YouTube
The 25-year-old Naples-born athlete recounted, “I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough.”
The bout on Thursday (1 Aug) has since sparked a gender row on social media.
‘#IstandwithAngelaCarini‘ trends on the social media platform, X, with many expressing their disapproval of a “biological man” competing against a “biological woman”.
Some even likened the fight to domestic abuse.
Source: Entertainment – Mediacorp on YouTube
Last March, the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified the Algerian boxer from the 2023 World Championship for failing gender eligibility tests. She was reportedly found to have elevated levels of testosterone.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organiser for the Paris 2024 Olympics, had cleared Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, both of whom were disqualified last year for gender eligibility issues.
On Friday (2 Aug), IOC spokesperson Mark Adam clarified that Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.”
He also said that this wasn’t a “transgender issue” and warned against turning the case into “some kind of witch hunt”.
On the same day, Carini apologised for the incident in an interview with Italian media:
I’m sorry for my opponent… If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.
The Italian boxer also claimed she was “angry because (her) Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
Meanwhile, IBA said it would award US$50,000 (S$66,355) to Carini. The sum is equivalent to the prize money for winning a boxing Gold medal at the Olympics,
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Featured image adapted from Entertainment – Mediacorp on YouTube
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