By
OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
Italian boxer, Angela Carini has said she wants to apologise to Imane Khelif after quitting their Olympic boxing match, prompting a row over gender eligibility rules.
Carini told the Italian publication, Gazzetta dello Sport, she respects the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to allow Khelif to take part in the Paris 2024 boxing tournament.
25-year-old Khelif won her round-of-16 clash with Carini in the women’s 66kg category in just 46 seconds Thursday after the Italian quit, saying: “I preferred to stop for my health.”
Carini also said she quit because her nose “hurt so much” and that she had “never felt a punch like this”.
Khelif is one of two athletes cleared to compete in the women’s boxing in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams had defended the decision, saying: “I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.”
But he also admits the issue is a “minefield” and a “simple explanation” does not exist.
Carini, 25, has now reflected on the controversy, telling Gazzetta dello Sport: “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
She also regretted not shaking hands with Khelif after their contest. “It wasn’t something I intended to do… actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
She added that – if she met Khelif again – she would “embrace her”.
World Athletics has grappled with how to treat competitors with differences in sex development (DSD) – notably the two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya.
Meanwhile, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says it was “a very uncomfortable” boxing match to watch, saying it is a complex issue but also it is right that sporting bodies make decisions about who can compete.
The issue of gender eligibility criteria surfaced at the 2023 world championships when Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan both won medals in the women’s competition before tournament officials announced the boxers had failed gender eligibility tests. They were stripped of their medals.
But both of them are allowed to take part in the Olympics, as the IOC adopts different criteria.
Top seed in the featherweight category Lin Yu-ting – who would have won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships if IBA had not disqualified her – was victorious in her opening Olympic bout on Friday.
Lin and Khelif will both box in the quarter-finals over the weekend.
Kelif will face Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the 66kg on Saturday and Lin boxes Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria on Sunday.
