PARIS: Italian boxer Angela Carini pulled out of the Paris Olympics on Thursday after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.

Khelif, whose participation in the Games was permitted by the IOC and had divided boxers, landed multiple punches in the first 30 seconds before a powerful right to Carini’s nose prompted the Italian to raise her hand and return to her corner.

Her coach signalled she was pulling out of the women’s welterweight round of 16 bout. A distraught Carini fell to her knees in the ring, sobbing and declining to shake Khelif’s hand after the referee declared the Algerian the winner.

“I am a fighter. My father taught me to be a warrior. When I am in the ring, I use that mindset, the mindset of a warrior, a winning mindset,” Carini told reporters after abandoning the bout. “This time I couldn’t make it. I didn’t lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity.”

Khelif and Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting were cleared to fight in Paris after the IOC last year stripped the IBA of its status as boxing’s governing body over governance issues, and took charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition.

Both had been disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing International Boxing Association (IBA) eligibility rules that prevent athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women’s events.

The IOC’s Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations, offers guidelines to federations on ensuring inclusion and fairness in sport, including athletes with Differences of Sexual Disorder (DSD).

DSD are a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs. Some people with DSDs are raised as female but have XY sex chromosomes and blood testosterone levels in the male range.

Ahead of Khelif’s bout, IOC spokesman Mark Adams defended the body’s decision for Paris 2024. “This involves real people and we are talking about real people’s lives here,” he told reporters on Thursday. “They have lost and they have won against other women over the years.”

Khelif described the bout as difficult.

“Inshallah for the second fight. I am very prepared because it’s been eight years of preparation,” she told reporters. “I need an Olympic medal here in Paris.”

Women’s sports categories exist in most sports in recognition of the clear advantage that going through male puberty gives an athlete. That advantage is not just through higher testosterone levels but also in muscle mass, skeletal advantage and faster twitch muscle.

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, wrote on X that Carini “and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex”.

British author JK Rowling, who has become an outspoken figure on the definition of what it is to be a woman, said Carini’s dreams had been shattered by unjust rules.

“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,” Rowling wrote on X. “#Paris2024 will be forever tarnished by this brutal injustice.”

Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Carini’s bout against Khelif was not a fight among equals.

“I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions,” Meloni was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA. “And not because you want to discriminate against someone, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms.”

Carini said her dreams had been shattered.

“I’m out, my dream is over,” she said. “So I felt really sad, with a broken heart. It’s not right for my Olympics to end here, and it’s not right for my dream to end here, because an athlete makes so many sacrifices. I’m not ashamed to say that I gave up, I’m not even afraid to go back to that ring.”

Algeria and Taiwan sprang to the defence of their boxers.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te gave the 28-year-old Lin his public backing.

“Yu-ting’s performances have inspired many Taiwanese players and united Taiwanese people,” he wrote on Facebook. “Now that she is once again on the international stage, we should stand united and cheer for her.”

Algeria’s Olympic Committee (COA) condemned what it called “ma­­l­i­c­ious and unethical attacks directed against our distinguished athlete, Imane Khelif, by certain foreign media”.

The COA hit out at “lies” that were “completely unfair”.

At least one woman boxer at the Games has spoken out about her concerns.

Australia’s Caitlin Parker is in the 75kg weight class so will not face Khelif or Lin, but she made her stance on the controversy clear.

“I don’t agree with that being allowed, especially in combat sports as it can be incredibly dangerous,” she said.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024