Angela Carini “wants to apologise” to Imane Khelif after their contentious bout, but the Hungarian Boxing Federation and Bulgarian Olympic Committee are protesting as boxing’s gender row continues.
Algeria’s Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting are both allowed to take part in the Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopting different criteria to the International Boxing Association (IBA) who disqualified both from last year’s World Championships due to the results of an unspecified eligibility test.
Khelif won her round-of-16 clash with Carini in the women’s 66kg category in just 46 seconds on Thursday after the Italian quit, saying at the time: “I preferred to stop for my health.”
Carini later said she felt “sorry” for Khelif, adding that she respected the IOC’s decision to allow her victorious opponent to take part in the Paris 2024 boxing tournament.
She told Gazetta dello Sport: “All this controversy makes me sad, I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
Carini added that she regretted not shaking hands with Khelif after their contest. “It wasn’t something I intended to do,” she said. “Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
She added that if she met Khelif again, she would “embrace her”.
Khelif will face Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the 66kg quarter-finals on Saturday, but the Hungarian Boxing Federation said on Friday that it had asked the country’s Olympic Committee (MOB) and the IOC to object to Khelif’s participation.
“In the last few hours, our federation has notified the Hungarian Olympic Committee of our objections to the participation of the Algerian athlete,” the federation said.
It added: “The MOB is also looking after the interests of the Hungarian athlete and is therefore continuously examining the means it can use to protect Hamori’s rights to fair competition under the rules in force. The MOB president has initiated immediate consultations with the IOC director of sport to clarify the situation.”
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting is through to the quarter-finals of the Women’s 57kg boxing category at the Paris Olympics
Earlier on Friday, top seed at featherweight, Lin Yu-ting – who would have won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships if the IBA had not disqualified her – was victorious in her opening bout, beating Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova to reach the quarter-finals, using her height and range to dictate the fight.
Lin boxes Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria on Sunday.
“We are firmly determined to defend the rights not only of Bulgarian, but of all female athletes who will be potentially harmed by the participation of representatives of the opposite sex in women’s competitions,” the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) said.
The IOC is running the boxing tournament in Paris after the IBA was stripped of its status as the global governing body for boxing last year because it failed to complete reforms on governance, finance and ethical issues.
The IOC said in a statement: “These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. They were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”
The IBA had earlier criticised the IOC for its “inconsistencies in eligibility”.
“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,” said an IBA statement. “The urgent nature of the decision (to disqualify the boxers) was justified, as the safety of our boxers is our top priority.”
The IBA said it will award Angela Carini the prize money she would have won had she become Olympic champion.
They recently announced plans to award $50,000 (£39,000) to any boxers who win a gold medal at the Games.
Now its president, Umar Kremlev, has waded into the row.
“I couldn’t look at her tears,” Kremlev said in a statement. “I am not indifferent to such situations and I can assure that we will protect each boxer.
“I do not understand why they kill women’s boxing. Only eligible athletes should compete in the ring for the sake of safety.”
Analysis: Will Khelif and Lin win medals?
Lin Yu-ting was awarded the victory via unanimous decision
Khelif and Lin have been boxing on the international circuit for a number of years.
Khelif is a previous Olympian. She boxed at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She won her first bout there but came away without a medal after losing to Ireland’s Kellie Harrington, the eventual champion, in the quarter-final.
She has become a top-level contender, reaching the final of the World Championships in 2022. Amy Broadhurst clearly outboxed her then to win the gold medal.
The following year at the World Championships in India she also reached the final. Notably she was permitted to box four times at that tournament before the IBA administered its eligibility test and disqualified her.
Khelif did not have a reputation as a power puncher on the amateur scene so it was all the more surprising to see her finish the Carini bout in under a minute.
Lin has an even longer track record in top-class amateur boxing. At the World Championships in 2016 she lost a tight bout to British star Nicola Adams. She medalled at every Worlds afterwards until 2023 when she would have taken bronze until the IBA also disqualified her for failing a gender eligibility test. She too was permitted to box several times at that tournament before being expelled.
Lin has been highly effective at these major tournaments, but has traded wins and losses with other elite operators. In the last two years Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu, Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova and Olympic champion Sena Irie have all beaten her.
Analysis: ‘Issue is not going away from the Olympics’
Lin Yu-ting is now one won away from a medal at the Olympics
Rob Harris, Sky News Sports Correspondent:
For days the very staging of this 66kg opening-round fight had been questioned but it also collided with a long-running dispute between the International Olympic Committee and the International Boxing Association.
Is it fair to fear being put in danger by someone far stronger in a combat sport?
Is it fair to exclude someone female at birth who has gone through no treatment to adjust testosterone levels that would gain a competitive advantage?
Mark Adams, of the IOC, said: “This involves real people and we’re talking about real people’s lives here.
“They have competed and they continue to compete in the women’s competition. They have lost and they’ve won against other women throughout, over the years.
“And by the way, this isn’t – we should make this absolutely clear for everyone – this is not a transgender issue.”
But the issue is not going away from the Olympics however much its leadership is asking everyone to “dial it down”.
Read Rob’s analysis in full on the Sky News website
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