Boxers at Center of Olympic Controversy Defend Eligibility
Two boxers at the center of a controversy at the Paris Olympics have been cleared by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete as women, despite a disqualification from the 2023 World Championships.
Imane Khelif of Algeria won her opening bout when her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, quit after just 46 seconds. The sudden end to the match sparked a wave of confusion among the crowd at the North Paris Arena.
Mark Adams, a spokesman for the IOC, emphasized that the two boxers are eligible to compete as women, citing their gender registration, passports, and history. "The question you have to ask yourself is, are these athletes women? The answer is yes according to eligibility, according to passports, according to their history," Adams said in a news conference in Paris.
Khelif, 25, is an accomplished amateur who won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 world championships. She was disqualified from last year’s championships shortly before her gold-medal match due to alleged elevated levels of testosterone.
Carini, 20, quit the match citing intense pain in her nose after the opening punches. She did not shake Khelif’s hand after the decision was announced and cried in the ring.
The controversy has drawn criticism from the International Boxing Association (IBA), which has been banned from the Olympics since 2019 due to governance issues. The IBA has claimed that both boxers did not undergo a testosterone examination and was "subject to a separate and recognized test" for their disqualification. The test’s specifics remain confidential.
The IOC has repeatedly defended the boxers’ right to compete, citing the gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Several sports have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics, and the International Cycling Union.
Khelif is set to face Anna Luca Hamori, Hungary’s first Olympic women’s boxer, in her quarterfinal bout on Saturday. If she wins, she could clinch an Olympic medal.
The IBA has lost more than three dozen members who have formed a new group called World Boxing, which hopes to be recognized by the IOC as the sport’s governing body ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
