Olympic Boxer Who Failed Prior Gender Eligibility Test Ends Fight In Seconds

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif defeated her first opponent, Italian Angela Carini, at the 2024 Paris Olympics in their women's preliminary welterweight fight just 48 seconds into the match. Carini was left on her knees in tears after the referee declared Khelif the winner. Khelif will go on to face Luca Anna Hamori, who said she is "not scared" and avoiding any social media and news stories around the controversial win.

Carini, who noted her refusal to continue was not a political statement, said she made the decision to forfeit after feeling "severe pain" in her nose, per CNN. "And with the maturity of a boxer," she continued, "I said 'enough,' because I didn't want to, I didn't want to, I couldn't finish the match."

Khelif was previously barred from the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships for failing an unspecified gender eligibility test that the Boxing Association (IBA) said found elevated testosterone levels and detected XY chromosomes. The same governing body let her play in the light welterweight division at the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul, where she took home a silver medal.

The swift defeat led to a flurry of debate over the match and its fairness, with the New York Post reporting that Angela Carini yelled "this is unjust" after the fight ended. Yet in the immediate aftermath of the tough loss, she did not appear to harbor any ill will toward her opponent, Imane Khelif. "I am not here to judge or pass judgment," she said, per CNN.

Instead, Carini pointed to the principles of perseverance instilled in her as the biggest cause of her sadness. "I am heartbroken because I am a fighter," she said of her loss, noting that her father "taught [her] to be a warrior." "I have always stepped into the ring with honor and I have always (served) my country with loyalty," she continued. "And this time I couldn't do it because I couldn't fight anymore, and so I ended the match."

Still, she held her head high. She told reporters it's not her place to judge or determine the fairness of the fight and said she doesn't view the event as a "defeat," as The Guardian reported. "For me if you go in the ring you have already won, regardless of everything else. I'm not here to judge," she said. "It's not up to me to say if it's fair or not fair. I just did my job."

Imane Khelif's quick defeat of Angela Carini and previous history of failing a gender test sparked outcry from people on social media and in the news. Many believe that Khelif had an unfair advantage and should not have been allowed to participate in the Olympics. As reported by Diario AS, Khelif was born with a disorder of sex development (DSD), which could explain the reported findings of the gender eligibility test and the International Boxing Association's (IBA's) subsequent decision to bar her from the 2023 championship event. (The IBA is no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee [IOC] and is itself effectively banned from the Olympics.)

LBCI Lebanon sports anchor and reporter Rayane Moussallem took to X to push back on claims that Khelif has XY chromosomes, as most males do. "Khelif is not a biological man, she is a woman with a high level of testosterone and was disqualified from the world championship last year due to concerns over that matter and failing to meet the eligibility criteria," she wrote. "She does not have the XY chromosomes instead of XX as the circulating claims."

Many have used the win to take aim at transgender people and stoke debate over their participation in sports. Others, like journalist Suzanne Moore, argued that while Khelif is not transgender, she still should not have participated in the competition in the first place. "Someone with a DSD cannot help the way they were born but they can choose not to cheat; they can choose not to take medals from women; they can choose not to cause injury," she wrote for The Telegraph.

Check out the most controversial things from the 2024 Olympics so far.