OLYMPIC GAMES | BOXING
Angela Carini responds to Imane Khelif controversy
The Italian boxer puts an end to the controversy after her defeat against the Algerian: “If I meet her, I will embrace her.”
Angela Carini has apologised after she retired from her fight against Imane Khelif, saying she “respects” the IOC’s decision to allow her to fight. Imane Khelif has been the subject of controversy after online falsehoods spread regarding her eligibility to compete in women’s boxing.
Imane Khelif is a woman. She was born a female and raised as a girl and has competed as a woman her entire life. She is not intersex, transexual, ‘biologically a male’; she does not have male genitalia and is not doping. It’s also illegal to be homosexual in Algeria, her home nation.
The International Boxing Association carried out a swab test and her results came back saying that she had sufficient male chromosomes to disqualify her from the women’s event, according to their definition of the rules. The IOC, who run the boxing at the Olympics, did not agree: she competed at Tokyo 2020 without issue. Both yourself and those complaining on Facebook didn’t even know her name. Nor did I. It was not an issue.
The IBA, as mentioned, do not run boxing at the Olympics. But they have managed to create controversy surrounding the IOC’s capacity to do such a thing, with thousands expressing their disgust at the presumably reliable information on their screens, wafted in and batted about their echo chamber. The IOC clearly can’t control things... job done?
Yes, the IOC have been late in responding and yes, plenty of others (politicians) haven’t, making their opinion clear in order to fan the flames one way or another.
And now Angela Carbini herself has come out to apologise for her actions after the fight, where she broke down in tears, on her knees, in the middle of the ring. The cameras certainly got their opportunity and made the most of it, but now she has said that “all this controversy makes me sad, I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” she said when addressing her retirement to Gazetta dello Sport. “Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
Khelif continues her Olympic journey on Saturday with a quarter-final bout against Luca Anna Hamori of Hungary at 17:22pm local time (11:22am ET / 8:22am PT) on Saturday, August 3. Hamori progressed after beating Australia’s Marissa Williamson in Thursday’s Round of 16 clash.
However, the Hungarian Boxing Federation were quick to make public that they had asked the Olympic Committee (MOB) and the IOC to object to Khelif’s participation: “In the last few hours, our federation has notified the Hungarian Olympic Committee of our objections to the participation of the Algerian athlete. The MOB is also looking after the interests of the Hungarian athlete and is therefore continuously examining the means it can use to protect Hamori’s rights to fair competition under the rules in force. The MOB president has initiated immediate consultations with the IOC director of sport to clarify the situation.”
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