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Who is Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, and why did her opponent quit their Olympic fight?

Khelif was assigned female at birth but disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing unspecified tests for women’s competition.

VILLEPINTE, France — Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has landed in the middle of a divide about gender in sports after her Italian competitor, Angela Carini, pulled out seconds into their bout at the Paris Olympics.

Outcry has come from conservatives like former U.S. President Donald Trump and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing unspecified and untransparent eligibility tests for women’s competition from the now-banned International Boxing Association.

Khelif was assigned female at birth and it says so on her passport, which is the International Olympic Committee’s threshold for eligibility for boxing because of the rift between the sport’s governing body and the IOC.

Khelif is a formidable athlete with respected fighting skills, contending in top international events — including major amateur boxing tournaments over the past six years, such as the Tokyo Olympics.

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But Khelif was decidedly not known as a dominant champion, an overpowering physical specimen or even a particularly hard puncher in the 66-kilogram division — not until this week in Paris.

Khelif defeated Carini in just 46 seconds Thursday, with the Italian boxer’s tearful abandonment of the fight leading to innumerable portrayals of Khelif as an unstoppable punching machine whose presence threatens the health of her opponents.

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The reality, to those who actually watch or participate in Olympic-style boxing, is quite different. Here’s what to know about Khelif and the controversy:

Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, defeated, Italy's Angela Carini in their women's 66kg...
Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, defeated, Italy's Angela Carini in their women's 66kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)(Ariana Cubillos / AP)
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Who is Imane Khelif?

Born in 1999, Khelif is from rural northwestern Algeria. Her father initially didn’t approve of girls participating in boxing, but Khelif said she gave up soccer as a teenager to pursue her new passion, even though she had to travel 10 kilometers each way to the gym.

Khelif eventually caught the attention of Algeria’s national team, making her major tournament debut in 2018 with a first-round loss at the AIBA — now the International Boxing Association — world championships. She lost five of her first six elite-level bouts, but improved and excelled.

Khelif was one of Algeria’s first three Olympic women’s boxers sent to Tokyo three years ago. She won her opening bout but lost her second to eventual gold medalist Kellie Harrington of Ireland.

She also raised her profile by doing well in the next two world championships, and she even became a UNICEF national ambassador early this year.

Why was she disqualified from the world championships?

Khelif reached the final of the 2023 world championships before she was abruptly disqualified by the IBA, which cited high levels of testosterone in her system. The circumstances of that disqualification have been considered highly unusual ever since it happened, and Khelif called it “a big conspiracy” at the time.

She had previously competed without issues and was disqualified by the sport’s governing body only after she defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament.

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This week, the IOC described it as “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” in which Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan “were suddenly disqualified without any due process.” Lin was suspended for failing to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

Lin won her opening Olympic boxing bout on Friday, beating Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan 5:0 in the women’s 57-kilogram division.

The reasons for the two disqualifications are extremely murky, as is almost always the case with the IBA. The governing body has revealed little about the nature of the tests, including what was tested and who tested it. This lack of transparency would be unacceptable in major Olympic sports, and the IBA has been banned from the Olympics since 2019.

Why is there outcry about Khelif competing?

Trump, Meloni and others, such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk, have complained about Khelif being allowed to compete.

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For the political far-right in Italy, which has been targeting issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, Khelif’s participation was just the latest evidence of “woke” culture infecting sport. Meloni, who met Friday with IOC President Thomas Bach, warned “ideology” taken to extremes can discriminate and harm women’s rights.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters Friday that there has been “a lot of misinformation around on social media particularly, which is damaging.”

“This is not a transgender case,” he added.

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Boxing in Paris is being run by a special IOC-appointed unit that the Olympic body says is applying rules, including eligibility decisions, that are based on the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro following the split with the sports governing body.

The IOC insisted this week that no scientific or political consensus exists on gender and fairness issues. It gave updated guidance to sports governing bodies in 2021.

Several sports bodies have updated their eligibility rules since the Tokyo Olympics were held in 2021, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. They all decided to bar athletes from women’s events who have transitioned from male to female and went through male puberty.

World Athletics also tightened rules last year to include testosterone testing for some athletes legally identified as female at birth though with a medical condition that leads to some male traits.

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Italy's Angela Carini kneels in the ring after abandoning her fight against Algeria's Imane...
Italy's Angela Carini kneels in the ring after abandoning her fight against Algeria's Imane Khelif in their women's 66kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/John Locher)(John Locher / AP)

Who is Angela Carini?

Carini came to the Paris Olympics aiming for a medal to honor her late father and coach, who died shortly after she participated in the Tokyo Games three years ago.

The 25-year-old Carini competes in the 66-kilogram (145.5-pound) class, otherwise known as welterweight. She won silver medals at both the world and European championships in 2019.

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She was also a gold medalist at the European youth championships. She lost her opening fight in Tokyo.

Carini’s nickname, “tiger,” was given to her by her father, Giuseppe.

Carini was an Italian champion in clay pigeon shooting before she switched to boxing. She made the switch to follow her brother, who also left shooting for boxing.

“My brother and my father taught me boxing,” Carini said. “I owe everything to them.”

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Algeria's Imane Khelif, left, fights Italy's Angela Carini in their women's 66kg preliminary...
Algeria's Imane Khelif, left, fights Italy's Angela Carini in their women's 66kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/John Locher)(John Locher / AP)

What happened in the fight?

Khelif and Carini exchanged a few brisk punches before Carini abandoned the bout — an extremely rare occurrence in Olympic boxing. Carini didn’t shake Khelif’s hand after the referee formally raised it. She cried in the ring after sinking to her knees.

Afterward, a still-tearful Carini said she quit because of the pain from Khelif’s opening punches, adding that her nose bled afterward.

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“My face and nose were hurting,” Carini said, according to the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport. “I couldn’t breathe anymore. I thought about my family, I looked at my brother in the stands and I went to my corner to retire. … I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch.”

Carini added that it wasn’t a pre-meditated move.

“All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini said. “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. … If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”

Carini was apologetic for not shaking Khelif’s hand after the bout.

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“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said. “Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again I would embrace her.”

When is Khelif’s next fight?

Khelif is scheduled to face Hungary’s Hamori in the quarterfinals Saturday, but the Hungarian Boxing Association says it is sending letters of protest to both the IOC and Hungary’s Olympic committee over the matchup.

Hamori still will accept her fight on Saturday against Khelif, according to MTI, Hungary’s state news agency.

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MTI was told of the association’s plans Friday by Lajos Berkó, a member of the association’s executive board. The association also is investigating the possibility of legally challenging Khelif’s presence.

“I am very sad that there is a scandal and that we have to talk about a topic that is not compatible with sport,” Berkó said. “This is unacceptable and outrageous.”

The boxing association plans to “express our indignation and request that the IOC reconsider its decision, which allowed a competitor into the IOC competition system who was previously banned from the (International Boxing Association’s) world championships,” Berkó said.

What has Khelif’s next opponent said?

Hamori is Hungary’s first women’s boxer at the Olympics, and she expressed no qualms about fighting Khelif immediately after she earned her quarterfinal berth in the 66-kilogram division by trouncing Australia’s Marissa Williamson Pohlman.

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“I’m not scared,” Hamori said. “I don’t care about the press story and social media.”

Hamori and Khelif have never sparred, but they have competed in the same tournament before. Hamori repeatedly said she isn’t paying attention to the controversy because it’s only a hindrance to her quest for gold.

“I’m trying to not use my phone before the fight,” Hamori said. “I don’t want to care about the comments or the story or the news. I just want to stay focused on myself. I did it before my last two fights, so I think this is the key, and we will see.”

And Hamori could only shrug at Carini’s decision to quit.

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“It was her choice,” Hamori said. “I don’t understand, because I thought every boxer’s mind is the same like mine, to never give up. But it was her choice. We don’t know what was the reason. It’s her life, but I know I want to do this in my own life.”

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