Sport gender’s gray area comes to women’s Olympic boxing

An Algerian boxer who was born female, but also carries an XY chromosome, has received global backlash for her participation in the Paris Olympics.

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Sports

August 2, 2024 - 1:30 PM

Team Algeria’s Imane Khelif, left, and Team Italy’s Angela Carini exchange punches at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Aug. 1. Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images/TNS/FILE

PARIS — The night before Angela Carini’s opening bout in the women’s boxing competition at the Tokyo Olympics, her father died.

The Italian from Naples lost the next day and soon quit the sport. Last fall, she had a change of heart and returned to the ring, qualifying for the Olympics and climbing through the ropes Thursday at Paris North Arena for her opening bout in the 145-pound division. She pointed skyward to her father.

Carini touched gloves with Algeria’s Imane Khelif and the bell sounded. Khelif landed a punch on Carini’s nose, and Carini quickly raised her glove to halt the fight and went to her corner, presumably so her chinstrap could be adjusted.

She returned to the middle of the ring, and Khelif hit her again.

Carini walked back to her corner. And quit.

“It’s not right,” TV microphones reportedly caught her saying in Italian as she left the ring after 46 seconds.

Carini was wearing blue with white shoes and lime green socks. Khelif was in all red.

But this wasn’t about vibrant colors.

This is the great gray area of women’s sports, the growing pain just as they are poking their head above the clouds of global consciousness, the unsolved conundrum that Carini reminded us isn’t going away, the elephant in the locker room.

Last year at boxing’s World Championships in India, Khelif was hours away from fighting for the championship when organizers disqualified her and stripped Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting of her bronze medal. The reason: They had failed a gender eligibility test and, in the words of International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev, “tried to deceive their colleagues and pretend to be women.”

The IBA isn’t overseeing the competition in Paris, as international federations typically do. The International Olympic Committee is after decertifying the Russian-run IBA amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

The IOC operates with different, less stringent gender eligibility rules. Khelif and Lin are free to compete in Paris.

Carini drew Khelif in her opening bout, and immediately pressure began mounting back home — including from high-ranking government officials — to forfeit in protest. She took a more nuanced approach, starting the three-round fight and abandoning after 46 seconds while Olympic cameras were rolling but refusing to pass judgment on Khelif in a tearful interview.

“I’m a mature athlete,” Carini kept saying in Italian. “I know when it’s time to stop.”

Her coach, Emanuela Renzini, said he convinced her to continue after she first came to the ropes following Khelif’s first punch, suggesting they wait for the one-minute break between rounds to talk it through. Ten seconds later, she was back.

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