Angela Carini, an Italian boxer suffered a defeat in her welterweight round of 16 game against Imane Khelif from Algeria at the Paris Olympics. She will be awarded a substantial sum of $50,000 in prize money, according to the announcement made by the International Boxing Association (IBA) on Friday. The bout took place on Thursday and ended abruptly after just 46 seconds.
Khelif’s unstoppable attack was responsible for Carini’s early departure from the competition as she unleashed many punches that overpowered her opponent forcing her to withdraw from the contest within the first round of it. At present Khelif is involved in gender controversy.
Carini will also take home $50,000 prize money; another $25,000 would go to her federation while an extra $25,000 would be given to her coach: this is according to IBA. This comes on the backdrop of a battle between IBA and IOC where last year IP claimed no international status for boxing association.
“Why women’s boxing had to die is what I don’t understand,” said Umar Kremlev who is the President of WBC. “Safety should be ensured by only allowing those that meet eligibility requirement into ring during fights. Her tears couldn’t bear.”
However, despite being disqualified from participation in next year’s world championships due to non-compliance with IBA eligibility criteria, which exclude men with XY chromosomes from competing in female categories and Lin Yu-ting who has twice won World Championships were able to participate in these Games
The two fighters are at loggerheads with International Olympic Committee because they are not supposed to fight each other in Paris Olympics.
In order for Khelifi’s opponent, he must face Luca Anna Hamori next time out.
The boxers were disallowed by IOC after removing AIBA as boxing governing body for poor governance hence taking over organization of Paris 2024 boxing competition. The two boxers are now the center of the controversy.
The IOC’s decision to ban them last year was not based on any rule and it is the main cause of all this outrage that has led people like Elon Musk and J.K Rowling, a British author to publicly object to their participation in Rio0 Olympic Games.
On Thursday Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni argued with IOC President Thomas Bach that her Italian athlete had faced a boxer with physical advantages and so it was an unfair fight.
However, WBC women’s world featherweight champion Skye Nicolson refuted this saying that such women as Khelif and Lin “are just not nice” since they have been beaten by girls many times before throughout their careers.
“I’ve actually fought and sparred both of the girls”, said Australian in her Instagram post.
“They were raised, grew up as girls, females, women. They have competed in female categories throughout. These are not naturally-born men who decided to change gender or declare themselves women so as to contest at Olympics.”
“In my opinion what happened with the Italian girl was more for publicity than anything else”.
The International Olympics Committee indicated that eligibility requirements for athletes participating in Olympic Games are based on rules established for Tokyo 2021 games; these rules cannot be amended during ongoing competitions. The decision comes amidst ongoing debates surrounding the participation of athletes with Differences of Sexual Disorder (DSD) in women’s events.
These conditions encompass rare DSDs and are characterized by alterations in genes, hormones, and reproductive organs. There are persons with DSDs who have an XY chromosomes constitution but raised as females, and they usually have testosterone levels that fall within the normal male range. Therefore, conversations about whether it is fair for them to be involved in women’s sports have emerged.
Different sport agencies have addressed this problem differently. Some limit the amount of testosterone that may be present in a female athlete competing in women’s events while others adopt a more rigorous approach; barring anyone who has gone through male puberty from participating.
