Boxer Carini may get award despite loss to Khelif

The International Boxing Association (IBA) said it wants to award $50,000 in prize money to Italy’s Angela Carini, who lost her welterweight round-of-16 bout against Algerian Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.

Carini pulled out 46 seconds into the first round after the Algerian, who is at the heart of a gender argument, pummeled the Italian with a barrage of punches.

The IBA, which was stripped of its international recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, said it intends to award Carini $50,000, her federation an additional $25,000 and her coach an additional $25,000.

“I do not understand why they killed women’s boxing,” IBA president Umar Kremlev said. “Only eligible athletes should compete in the ring for the sake of safety. I could not look at her tears.”

Algeria’s Khelif, and Taiwan double world champion Lin Yu-ting, were cleared to compete in Paris despite being disqualified at the 2023 world championships after failing IBA eligibility rules that prevent athletes with male XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.

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 itself, but now finds itself at the center of a row over the pair’s participation.

Welterweight Khelif next takes on Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori.

In an interview with Italian daily Gazetta dello Sport published Friday, Carini said she did not mean to stir up heated controversy.

“All this controversy certainly made me sad, and I also felt sorry for my opponent, she had nothing to do with it and like me was only here to fight,” she said.

“It was not intentional, in fact I apologize to her and to everyone. I was angry, because my Games had already gone up in smoke. I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary if I happened to meet her again I would give her a hug.”

‘Mistreatment’

The IOC said the IBA decision to disqualify the boxers last year was arbitrary and the main cause for the furor that has seen people such as British author J.K. Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk voice their opposition to them competing in the Games.

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who met IOC president Thomas Bach on Thursday, said the Italian athlete had faced a boxer who had physical advantages and it was not a fight between equals.

However, WBC women’s world featherweight champion Skye Nicolson pointed out that Khelif and Lin had both been beaten by women several times during their careers and said they “do not deserve this mistreatment”.

“I’ve actually fought and sparred both of the girls,” the Australian said in an Instagram post.

“They have grown up as girls, as females, as women. They have competed as women the whole time. These are not naturally born men who have decided to call themselves women or identify as women to fight women in the Olympics.

“I feel like the thing that happened with the Italian girl was a publicity stunt more than anything.

Some sports have limited the levels of testosterone allowed for athletes competing in women’s competition, while others ban everyone who has been through male puberty.

Differences of Sex Development (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.

The IOC said the rules of eligibility were based on those of the Tokyo Games in 2021 and could not be changed during a competition.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.