Italian boxer Angela Carini has declared that she wants to apologise to Algeria’s Imane Khelif following the worldwide reaction that has resulted following their Women’s Boxing contest at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Khelif won the fight inside 45 seconds, after Carini stated that she was unable to continue, later claiming that she had never been punched as hard before as she had been in the bout.
It caused instant controversy, due to the fact that Khelif, along with Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting were both disqualified from the 2023 World Championships, with the IBA stating that “both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting, post-testing, did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events.
The IOC explained that this decision was ‘taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO’ and ‘without any proper procedure’ – and the IBA was later stripped of its status as a governing body for the Olympics by the IOC a few months later.
Despite this, it hasn’t stopped a mass torrent of abuse towards Khelif, with a number of huge names on social media taking aim at the Algerian, including Jake Paul, Logan Paul, Elon Musk, JK Rowling, and even Great Britain’s Olympic champion Nicola Adams.
The spread of misinformation has caused many onlookers to suggest that Khelif was born as a man, which there is no evidence of.
With that in mind, Carini has now come out to say that she regrets the way she initially handled the defeat, telling Gazzetta dello Sport that she now respects the decision to allow Khelif to compete.
“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. Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
The IOC released a statement on the matter last night, insisting that ‘every person has a right to compete without discrimination.’
Khelif will return to fight in the quarter-finals at 17:22 (local time) on August 3rd against Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, who progressed with a 5-0 points win over Australia’s Marissa Williamson.
Lin Yu-Ting, the other boxer at the centre of the drama, defeated Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova 5-0 in today’s preliminary round of the Paris 2024 Olympics, setting up a quarter-final with Bulgaria’s Svetlana Kamenova Staneva.
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