A recent women’s boxing match at the Paris Olympics has sparked international backlash and questions about the fairness of allowing a “biological male” to compete in the ring. Italy’s Angela Carini faced off against Algeria’s Imani Khelif on Thursday, in the welterweight (66kg) category, but lasted just 45 seconds before she forfeited the bout and expressed her discontent with the situation.
Carini took two heavy blows to the face, after which she threw down her helmet and declared “this is unjust!” She then refused to shake hands with Khelif, who was declared the winner by the referee. Carini collapsed to her knees and broke into tears.
I’m used to suffering. I’ve never taken a punch like that, it was impossible to continue,” she said after the match. Critics of transgenderism around the world have come to Carini’s defense, decrying Khelif as a biological male and protesting the bout as unfair.
Jake Paul, a YouTuber turned professional boxer, expressed his outrage on social media: “This is sickening. This is a travesty. Doesn’t matter what you believe. This is wrong and dangerous.” J.K. Rowling also weighed in, telling the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the 2024 Olympics will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.
American college swimmer Riley Gaines started a hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) “I stand with Angela Carini,” which was endorsed by Elon Musk. However, IOC spokesman Mark Adams insisted that all competitors complied with the eligibility rules and added that this is not a transgender issue.
Khelif had been disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023 as a biological male but appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which they eventually withdrew from during the process, according to the IBA on Wednesday. The association protested the IOC decision to allow Khelif to compete in Paris, arguing that its rules “raise serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety.
The IOC has ruled that both Khelif and Lin Tu-ting – a boxer representing Chinese Taipei – “are women according to their passports.” The Olympic body has also excluded the IBA from the Paris games, in part because the association is based in Russia.
Algeria claims that Khelif is not transgender but rather a woman affected by a condition known as hyperandrogenism, characterized by a high level of testosterone and the presence of XY chromosomes. The Algerian Olympic Committee released a statement condemning “the unethical targeting and maligning” of their athlete with “baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.
The Paris Olympics have faced considerable criticism following last Friday’s opening ceremony, which included homosexuals, transsexuals, and drag queens simulating a Bacchanalia patterned after Leonardo da Vinci’s famous mural ‘The Last Supper.