Italian boxer Carini's exit from bout with Algeria's Khelif sparks debate over testosterone levels
Imane Khelif won silver at 2022 worlds but was later disqualified from championships over testosterone levels
Algerian Imane Khelif's Paris Olympics welterweight fight against Angela Carini in the round of 16 lasted 46 seconds after the Italian quit the bout following a powerful punch to the nose.
Carini went to her coach after 30 seconds to fix her headgear but after briefly resuming the fight, she returned to her corner and stopped before quickly leaving the ring.
"I put an end to the match because after the second blow, after years of experience in the ring and a life of fighting, I felt a strong pain in my nose," she said.
Khelif is one of two women's boxing contenders at the Paris Games whose eligibility to compete has been called into question.
A tearful Carini told reporters that she didn't judge her opponent.
"I wish her to carry on until the end," she said. "I am not here to give judgments."
As for her own exit from the match, she said she was leaving with her "head held high and with a broken heart."
"I've always been very instinctive, but when I feel something is not going well, it's not a surrender but having the maturity to stop," she said.
IBA and IOC have different rules
Both Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting — who won her featherweight match against Uzbekistan's Sidora Turdibekova on Friday — previously failed International Boxing Association (IBA) gender eligibility testing, which did not include an examination of testosterone levels. But they were able to compete under International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations.
The IOC released a framework nearly three years ago to ensure that athletes are not excluded "solely on the basis" of transgender identity or differences in sex development (DSD).
DSD is a catch-all term for a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs. It can cause women and people whose assigned sex at birth is female to have XY sex chromosomes, blood testosterone levels in the male range and higher circulating testosterone concentrations.
"In 2021, the IOC specifically said that each federation could make their own gender-specific rules, and since then, the rules have gone [in] all sorts of different directions," said Joanna Harper, a former medical adviser to the IOC.
"The IBA, which governs the World Boxing Championships but not the Olympics, made a decision on these two boxers, and the IOC has made a different decision."
But the outcome of the Khelif-Carini match has fuelled online discourse that is rife with anti-transgender hate and racism, as well as unfounded accusations about the gender identity of both Khelif and Lin and derogatory comments about their physical appearance.
Neither Khelif nor Lin identify as transgender or as being assigned male at birth. It's unclear if either is diagnosed as having DSD.
No 'black and white explanation'
Some sports have limited the levels of testosterone allowed for athletes competing in women's categories while others ban anyone who was assigned male sex at birth and is past puberty.
At a press conference Friday, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams responded to calls from some pubic figures for Khelif and Lin to be barred from competing in their category by saying the rules governing the Games cannot be changed mid-competition.
He called the debate over testosterone levels in women's sports a "minefield."
"As with all minefields, we want a simple explanation," Adams said. "Everyone wants a black and white explanation of how we can determine this. That explanation does not exist, neither in the scientific community nor anywhere else."
He also addressed the misidentification of Khelif as transgender or being assigned male at birth.
"The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport," he said at the press conference.
"There has been some confusion that somehow, it's a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case. Scientifically, on that, there is consensus. Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman, and I think we need to … get that out."
Meloni, Rowling and Musk weigh in
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and prominent figures like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk — all of whom have a history of spreading anti-transgender rhetoric and dismissing some of the science around gender identity — criticized Khelif's participation in the match against Carini.
"I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women's competitions," Meloni said Thursday, decrying the Khelif-Carini bout as "not an even contest."
Adams noted after Thursday's match that Khelif and Lin have both won and lost bouts against other women throughout their careers.
Khelif lost in the first round at the 2019 world championships and also exited in the first round at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed one year due to the pandemic.
The Algerian then won silver at the 2022 worlds and was about to compete in the final again a year later at the championships when the IBA issued its disqualification over what Algerian media reported were elevated testosterone levels just before the gold medal match.
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement Wednesday condemning what it termed "lies" and "unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets."
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, in a post on the social media platform X, showed support for Lin ahead of Friday's match, calling her "fearless in the face of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring."
Lin next faces Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria — who was awarded bronze in the 2023 world championships after Lin's disqualification — in the featherweight quarter-finals on Sunday. Khelif will take on Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori in the welterweight quarter-final match on Saturday.
Clarifications
- This story has been updated with additional context about the regulations and debate surrounding testosterone levels in women's sport.Aug 02, 2024 1:27 PM ET
With files from Reuters, The Associated Press and CBC Sports
