- Imane Khelif faced off in her first Olympic match on Thursday morning
- The 25-year-old was denied entry to last year’s World Championships
- She has been given the green light to compete here and compelled her opponent to withdraw
Video footage has surfaced showing Algerian boxer Imane Khelif delivering a powerful right hand that forced her Italian counterpart to retire just 46 seconds into their Olympic match on Thursday morning.
Khelif, 25, was allowed to compete in Paris after being excluded from the previous year’s World Championships due to elevated testosterone levels.
She went up against Italy’s Angela Carini in her opening Olympic bout on Thursday, quickly taking charge with a significant punch that sent Carini reeling.
Although Carini managed to remain standing, the punch connected cleanly on her chin. Moments later, she walked to her corner and told her team, ‘it hurt like hell.’
After conferring with her corner, Carini chose to forfeit the welterweight match, resulting in Khelif being declared the winner.
Imane Khelif (left) landed a huge right hand on her Italian opponent Angela Carini (right)
Carini walked to her corner moments later and told them ‘it hurt like hell’
Carini’s corner informed the referee that she would not be continuing in the bout
Khelif (right) was declared the winner of the bout and advances to the next round
Carini was visibly upset after the match, expressing to reporters: ‘I entered the ring to fight. I didn’t concede defeat, but that punch was too painful, so I had to say enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.’
Khelif’s participation in the Olympics has ignited controversy following her disqualification from the World Championships in New Delhi in 2023.
The Olympics website indicated that Khelif was disqualified mere hours prior to a gold medal match against China’s Yang Liu due to her testosterone levels not aligning with eligibility standards.
The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) responded by alleging that the disqualification was a plot to obstruct their chances of winning gold, maintaining that her elevated testosterone levels were medically justified.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting also faced disqualification from the World Championships.
Feminist platform Reduxx reported that both athletes may be affected by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a group of medical disorders characterized by atypical genitalia relative to chromosomes at birth.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) issued a statement on Wednesday, highlighting that their decisions were based on ‘a meticulous review.’
The IBA clarified that neither athlete had undergone testosterone testing, but were instead ‘subject to a separate recognized test’ conducted during the World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Taiwan’s Ling Yu-Ting (pictured) has been cleared to compete, despite also being disqualified from last year’s World Championships
Claims have been made that the tests ‘conclusively indicated that both athletes did not satisfy the necessary eligibility criteria,’ revealing that both boxers were ‘found to possess competitive advantages over other female competitors.’
The IBA criticized the IOC, asserting that its differing regulations ‘raise serious concerns regarding both competitive integrity and athlete safety.’
The IBA has been stripped of its recognition for the Olympic competition by the IOC amid ongoing governance issues, leading to the establishment of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit to manage the event.
The Boxing Unit has sanctioned the participation of both boxers according to the rules that were in effect for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which are less stringent than the IBA’s regulations.
Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting previously competed in Tokyo, both exiting their respective events in the early rounds.
