An Italian boxer abandoned her bout at the Paris Olympics after only 46 seconds on Thursday, refusing to continue after taking a heavy punch from an Algerian opponent who had been disqualified from last year’s world championships over questions about her eligibility to compete in women’s sports.
The Italian boxer, Angela Carini, withdrew after her Algerian opponent, Imane Khelif, landed a powerful blow that struck Carini square in the face. Carini paused for a moment, then turned her back to Khelif and walked to her corner. Her coaches quickly signaled that she would not continue, and the referee stopped the fight.
Khelif, 25, was permitted to compete at the Olympics even though she had been banned last year after boxing officials said she did not meet eligibility requirements to compete in a women’s event. Another athlete also banned from last year’s world championships under similar circumstances, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, has also been cleared to fight in Paris.
Their presence in the women’s competition has become the latest flashpoint in the politically charged debate over gender and fair play in sports.
The International Olympic Committee, which is overseeing the boxing competition, said the disqualifications of Khelif and Lin at the 2023 world championships had been "sudden and arbitrary,” and it defended their right to fight in Paris.
"Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination,” the IOC said.
Carini declined to shake Khelif’s hand after her defeat was announced, then fell to her knees in the ring and began to cry.
"I am heartbroken,” she told reporters afterward. "I went to the ring to honor my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.”
She added: "I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up. But one punch hurt too much and so I said, ‘Enough.’ I’m going out with my head held high.”
Carini declined to say if Khelif should have been allowed to participate.
"I am no one to judge this match,” she said. "I am not a referee.”
Thursday’s forfeit sparked strong reactions in Italy, where the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the fight "a match that did not seem on equal footing.”
"Athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to female competitions,” she told reporters.
Claressa Shields, a professional boxer who in 2012 became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport, said in an interview that she did not remember undergoing testosterone testing when she competed as an amateur. She said women with naturally high testosterone levels should not be punished, and that there should be transparent testing protocols.
"We can’t punish a woman for naturally having something that other women don’t have,” Shields said. "That’s like saying, ‘Oh, she’s too strong to be at this weight, she’s knocking everybody out, we’re going to put her in the men’s division.’ It has to be some facts that make sense.”
The debate about who should be allowed to participate in women’s sports centers on two flashpoint issues.
One involves transgender athletes like American swimmer Lia Thomas, who fought an unsuccessful legal battle seeking a chance to qualify for the Paris Games. Some sports, including swimming and track and field, effectively ban from women’s events those athletes who went through puberty as males.
Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, said that Khelif and Lin were not transgender athletes and should not be described as such.
The other issue involves athletes such as Caster Semenya of South Africa, a two-time Olympic champion in track and field, who have a difference of sexual development known as 46XY DSD.
These athletes are considered legally female, or intersex, and have X and Y chromosomes, the typical male pattern; testes or ambiguous genitalia; natural testosterone levels in the male range; and respond to testosterone in ways typical to men.
The International Boxing Association, the former governing body for amateur boxing but one the Olympic body no longer recognizes, issued its own statement this week to explain why it had banned Khelif and Lin last year. Umar Kremlev, the association’s president, said at the time that the boxers had been excluded from the 2023 world championships because testing revealed that they possessed X and Y chromosomes.
Adams has said that both Khelif and Lin identify as female on their passports. The IOC has faced mounting questions about the participation of the two boxers, but said both athletes had been cleared to fight under the rules for the Olympic tournament. Those are essentially the regulations the IBA adopted for the 2016 Rio Games, the IOC said, and they do not include language about testosterone or restrictions on gender eligibility.
"Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” Adams said.
Sex testing for women’s Olympic competitors began in 1968, and the IOC agreed to end the practice in 1999.
"These ladies in question are female,” said Christian Klaue, another IOC spokesperson. "They have been born as female. They have boxed as females for a long time in female competitions without any major problems,” including the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.
Because there is no sex testing at the Games, Klaue said, "who makes the call which athletes should be tested? You cannot go just by the looks. That is pure discrimination.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which adjudicates disputes in international sports, has ruled that regulations by some sports federations that place restrictions on athletes with the 46XY DSD condition are discriminatory, but "necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to preserve fair play in women’s events.
According to the International Boxing Association, Khelif initially appealed her disqualification last year to the Court of Arbitration for Sport "but withdrew the appeal during the process, making the IBA decision legally binding.” Lin did not challenge her disqualification.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times © 2025 The New York Times Company
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