Olympic women’s boxer Imane Khelif, who triggered an international gender row by demolishing her opponent in 46 seconds yesterday, has spoken of her ‘bravery’ at overcoming a life of adversity to reach the top of her sport.
The ‘biologically male’ athlete told how she rose from selling bread on the streets of her Algerian village to become a sporting hero – after a coach turned her to the sport due to her ‘physical qualities’.
But even then, she faced prejudice as her conservative family and community viewed the sport as ‘only for men’.
The 25-year-old, one of two athletes thrown out of last year’s world championships in New Delhi after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria, is now eyeing up a dream gold medal after progressing to the quarter-finals in a win marred by controversy.
In an unearthed interview filmed ahead of the Games, the boxer opened up about bouncing back from her ban over elevated testosterone levels and declared: ‘I wanted to show the whole world what a brave woman Imane Khelif is.’
Her fight in Paris is set to go down as one of the most controversial in Olympic history and has thrown the Games into chaos amid a fierce backlash from the likes of JK Rowling, Olympian Sharron Davies and former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Olympic bosses, however, quickly defended Khelif, slamming the ‘aggression’ and ‘discrimination’ from the public. Khelif shared the statement on social media and wrote: ‘Praise be to God. Divine justice.’
During the fight, Carini was hit twice, suffered a suspected broken nose and barely threw a punch before telling her corner: ‘It’s not fair.’ She then sank to her knees, beat the canvas in frustration and refused to shake Khelif’s hand.
After the one-sided 66kg category bout ended Carini, also 25, said she quit the bout to ‘save my life’.
During the unearthed Canal Algerie interview, which also featured photos of Khelif as a young girl, the Algerian also told how she was inspired to go into boxing because of the ‘physical qualities’ her coach at school saw in her.
When asked by the interviewer why she chose to go into a sport ‘often referred to as a men’s sport’, Khelif replied: ‘It was pure chance, I never imagined one day that I would become a boxer and that I would become world champion.
‘I have always loved football and I played it in my little village. My father always preferred football to boxing. But I was very good at sports in my school and my teacher encouraged me to become a boxer since I had good physical qualities and he was right.
Khelif said she ‘fell in love’ with boxing as soon as she stepped in the ring for the first time.
But the boxer described her childhood as ‘really difficult’, adding: ‘I come from a conservative region and family. Boxing was a sport dedicated only to men.’
She also spoke of having to travel between her village and the town where she did her training, adding: ‘These are obstacles that I encountered when I started.
‘I happened to sell bread in the street, I collected dishes and other objects to earn money and to be able to move around because I came from a very poor family.’
Imane describes her career as ‘an impressive story’, revealing how she started her career in an Algerian village before moving to a city, then the capital and later choosing to go abroad.
Khelif’s participation in the event has been a source of controversy after she was disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships last year.
The Olympics website noted that Khelif had been disqualified hours before a gold medal bout against China’s Yang Liu in New Delhi after her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria.
The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) hit back by claiming the disqualification was part of a ‘conspiracy’ to stop them from winning a gold medal and said ‘medical reasons’ were behind high testosterone levels.
Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan was also disqualified from the World Championships.
Speaking out following her loss, Carini revealed she quit to ‘safeguard my life’, adding: ‘I couldn’t carry on. I have a big pain in my nose and I said, ‘Stop’. It’s better to avoid keeping going. My nose started dripping from the first hit.
‘It could be the match of my life but, in that moment, I had to safeguard my life, too. I felt to do this, I didn’t have any fear, I don’t have any fear of the ring or to get hit.
‘I fought very often in the national team. I train with my brother. I’ve always fought against men, but I felt too much pain today.’
After the match was stopped, the referee raised Khelif’s hand in the air. But a visibly furious Carini yanked her own hand away from the fight official and walked off.
Ignoring the Algerian, the Italian fighter then plunged to her knees and burst into tears as she said she had never felt such strong blows in a contest before.
Speaking after the match, the heartbroken Italian said: ‘I’m used to suffering. I’ve never taken a punch like that, it’s impossible to continue. I’m nobody to say it’s illegal.
‘I got into the ring to fight. But I didn’t feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.’
She said she did not walk away from the fight as a protest against her opponent’s inclusion, but that was a decision for the Olympics to consider.
Asked why she knelt at the end of the match, she said it was for her late father, who died in 2021, before adding: ‘I am sorry not to have taken Italy on to the podium.’
She was taken away for medical assessment to examine the seriousness of her facial injuries which included a bruised nose.
Carini added: ‘I entered the ring and I told myself I have to take out all of myself independently from the person I had in front of me.
‘And honestly, I don’t care. I said to myself, ‘This is my Olympics’. Independently, from all controversy, I just wanted to carry on and win.’
‘I am not one that easily surrenders. Even if they told me, let’s not fight, I would not have accepted it.
‘I am a fighter. My father taught me to be a warrior. When I am in the ring, I use that mindset, the mindset of a warrior, a winning mindset. This time I couldn’t make it.
‘You all saw my nose that started bleeding. I didn’t lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity.’
‘I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn’t judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.
‘I simply entered the ring to fight and to fight for my dream. It didn’t happen. Evidently, God and my father wanted this and I accept it.
‘I am not in the position of saying this is right or wrong. I am not. I did my job as a boxer, entering the ring and fighting. I didn’t manage to, but I am exiting with my head held high and with a broken heart.
‘I am a mature woman, the ring is my life. 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.’
Carini’s coach in the mix zone after the fight said: ‘I don’t know if her nose is broken. I have to speak with the girl. But many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: ‘Don’t go please: it’s a man, it’s dangerous for you.’
After the clash, the Algerian Boxing Federation gloated about Khelif’s victory, posting on Facebook: ‘Congratulations to the Algerian boxer Iman Khalif, who responds strongly in the ring and qualifies for the quarterfinals, after defeating the Italian Angelina Carini in less than 46 seconds, effortlessly.’
Speaking as she left the ring, the Algerian boxer said: ‘God willing, this was the first victory. God is willing me to the golden one.’
The Algerian added: ‘Difficult for a first fight. Insh’allah (if Allah wills it) for the second fight. I am very prepared because it’s been eight years of preparation. It’s my second Olympic Games after fifth place at Tokyo.
‘I need an Olympic medal here in Paris.
‘We will see who will win the second fight to know who will be the opponent.
‘We will be ready and we will do everything to bring back a medal for Algeria. One, two, three, viva Algeria.’
She declined to comment on the controversial decision to include her in the Olympics
Bosses at the IOC are now facing a furious backlash following the fight, with former Prime Minister Liz Truss blasting the clash.
Writing on Twitter, the former Tory MP said: ‘When will this madness stop? Men cannot become women. Why is the British Government not objecting to this?’
British Olympic hero Sharron Davies also waded into the controversy, raging: ‘This is shocking. The IOC are a bloody disgrace. In effect legalising beating up females. This must stop!!! What the hell’s the matter with them?’
While Harry Potter author JK Rowling branded the contest ‘insanity’. In a post yesterday, the gender-critical author wrote: ‘What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?’
Posting a video of the fight today, the author added: ‘Watch this (whole thread), then explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn’t sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organisers who allowed this to happen, this is men revelling in their power over women.’
The presence at the Paris Olympics of two boxers who were disqualified from last year’s world championships has revived the discussion over whether athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) should compete in women’s competition.
WHAT IS A DSD?
Differences of Sexual Development are a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs. Some people with DSDs are raised as female but have XY sex chromosomes, blood testosterone levels in the male range and the ability to use testosterone circulating within their bodies.
WHY IS THAT AN ISSUE IN SPORT?
Women’s sports categories exist in most sports in recognition of the clear advantage that going through male puberty gives an athlete.
That advantage is not just through higher testosterone levels but also in muscle mass, skeletal advantage and faster twitch muscle.
In combat sports such as boxing, this can be a serious safety issue.
WHAT IS THE ISSUE AT THE PARIS OLYMPICS?
Boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting at last year’s world championships in New Delhi fell foul of International Boxing Association (IBA) eligibility rules that prevent athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.
Algeria’s Khelif was disqualified hours before her gold-medal bout in New Delhi, while Taiwan’s double world champion Lin lost her bronze medal after she too failed to meet the criteria.
WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO COMPETE AT THE OLYMPICS?
The IBA was stripped of its status as the global governing body for boxing by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in June last year because of its failure to complete reforms on governance, finance and ethical issues.
The IOC is therefore running the boxing competition at the Paris Games, as it did at the Tokyo Olympics, and its rules on the inclusion of athletes with DSDs and gender diversity in the women’s competition apply.
The latest IOC guidelines issued in 2021 state that inclusion should be the default in such cases and that athletes should only be excluded from women’s competition if there are clear fairness or safety issues.
‘Federations need to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness but at the same time with the ability for everyone to take part who wants to. That’s a difficult balance,’ IOC spokesman Mark Adams said on Tuesday.
‘In the end it’s up to the experts for each discipline. They know very well where there is an advantage, and if that is a big advantage then that is clearly not acceptable. But that decision needs to be made at that level.’
ARE THERE ANY SIMILAR CASES AT THE PARIS OLYMPICS?
Zambia women’s soccer captain Barbra Banda was ruled out of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after failing the Confederation of African Football (CAF) gender eligibility tests.
The 24-year-old did captain her country at last year’s Women’s World Cup and on Sunday scored a hat-trick in the first half of their 6-5 loss to at the Paris Olympics.
FIFA, which organises the Olympic football competition, still uses rules first published in 2011. They state that only men are eligible to play in men’s competitions, and the same for women. FIFA is reviewing its policy but there is no timeline for completion.
WHAT HAPPENS IN OTHER SPORTS?
South Africa’s double Olympic 800-metres track champion Caster Semenya has unwittingly been at the centre of this issue for more than a decade.
Over the past couple of years, the governing bodies of athletics, cycling, swimming and rugby union have been tightening their regulations to exclude those with the advantage of going through male puberty from some or all women’s competition.
Semenya has not been allowed to compete in any distance between 400m and the mile since 2018 unless she maintains lower testosterone levels, which requires medication.
She appeared at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in May to continue her challenge against World Athletics. The case is still being considered.
WHAT DOES THE IOC SAY ABOUT THE BOXERS?
The IOC has defended its decision to allow the two boxers to compete.
‘I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,’ IOC spokesman Adams said on Tuesday. ‘They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case.’
WHAT DO THE OTHER BOXERS SAY?
‘If you’re talking about fighting an actual man, then no, I’m not cool with fighting a man. But in their case, I can’t say specifically on them because I don’t know their scenario or situation,’ n boxer Tiana Echegaray said on Wednesday.
‘Biologically, genetically, they’re going to have more advantages, and in combat sports, it can be dangerous,’ said n boxer Caitlin Parker.
‘I think she is a very strong female boxer. She has a good chance of winning. I have confidence in her. She is very confident,’ said Lin’s Taiwan teammate Chia Wei Kan.
Carini is an Italian police officer with the Fiamme Oro.
Her mantra is: ‘Boxing is a sport that teaches you to have respect for your opponent. It can be a weapon in life, but only for defence. It cannot and must not become an abuse. Like any sport, it can instead become a vehicle for venting anger and pain.’
Khelif was thrown out of last year’s world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.
But despite her gender test problems, she was admitted to the Olympics amid a huge furore.
Olympics officials at Paris 2024 have accepted her as a female and state so in her official games biography.
Another female boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan was also disqualified from the 2023 women’s boxing world championships for failing a gender eligibility test.
Former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan – now president of the Professional Boxing Association – said it was a ‘shocking’ and ‘pathetic’ decision to allow ‘a man’ to fight women.
Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) has said after a series of DNA-tests the association ‘uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretended to be women.
Kremlev claimed that the tests ‘proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.’
Italy’s sports minister Andrea Abodi raised concerns about Khelif competing, but Angela Carini was on record as saying that ‘respect’ of her opponents was her mantra.
Algeria’s Olympic Committee condemned as ‘baseless’ the attacks on their boxer after questions were raised over her participation at the Paris Olympics.
But Khelif, who competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, only fell into controversy after failing the tests last year in New Delhi.
She received resounding applause from staunch Algerian supporters as she entered the ring, but there were several boos.
At 5’10 and two inches taller than her police officer opponent, Khelif showed off her power with a series of powerful punches early in the three round contest.
But it was over in less than a minute.
Italian officials had already protested the inclusion of the Algerian and Olympic officials were assessing how to deal with further controversies surrounding the Algerian as she fights her way towards a medal.
Carini’s father also served in the police, but was injured in an accident when she was a toddler and had to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Speaking in 2020, she said: ‘My father is my hero. I am very attached to him, he taught me that in life you should never give up. And when I’m in the ring and the situation gets tough, I hear his example, I never give up.
‘When he was paralysed I was only two years old. I grew up on his legs, he never made me miss anything. I have never seen him as a different father from the others, the chair on which he is sitting has never divided us, quite the contrary.’
Her father died away in 2021, a few days after her Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, and she considered quitting the sport.
‘I didn’t want to box without my dad anymore. But I came back because I owe it to him. He has always been by my side and now we fight together.’
The clash comes amid a gender storm at the Olympics over ‘biologically male’ fighters competing in the female divisions.
IOC bosses overseeing the Olympics in Paris said Khelif met the eligibility criteria to compete – despite concerns of the boxer’s biological sex.
Following last year’s ban, the Algerian Olympic Committee hit back, claiming the disqualification was part of a ‘conspiracy’ to stop them from winning a gold meal and said ‘medical reasons’ were behind high testosterone levels.
After the disqualification, Mexico’s Brianda Tamara came forward with her own experience of fighting Khelif earlier in the tournament.
‘When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,’ she wrote on X. ‘Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized.’
Also given the green light to fight is Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, who was also thrown out of the world championships amid questions about their sex.
According to feminist website Reduxx, both are thought both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a series of medical conditions identified at birth where genitalia is atypical in relation to chromosomes.
McGuigan is among those questioning the situation. ‘It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?’ he wrote on X.
Elsewhere, Nancy Hogshead – the American swimmer who won three golds at the 1984 Games, waded into the row, claiming that ‘gender ideology will get women KILLED’.
Hogshead wrote: ‘Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan are scheduled to compete in women’s Olympic boxing – despite being disqualified last year for having XY chromosomes, the male phenotype. Let’s remind ourselves that males – however they identify – pack a punch that is 162 per cent more powerful than women – THE biggest performance gap between men and women. Gender ideology will get women KILLED.’
One X user added: ‘Men punching women is now officially an Olympic sport’.
An IOC spokesperson said: ‘All athletes participating in the boxing tournament comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations, in accordance with the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.’
They also defended Khelif and Yu-ting against the backlash.
‘They (Khelif and Yu-ting) were suddenly disqualified without any due process,’ the 557-word statement read before adding that, in line with previous Olympics, ‘the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport’.
‘Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination,’ the IOC said, before highlighting that its rules were based on the rules the IBA had in place before its forced withdrawal in 2023.
It also attacked ‘misleading information about two female athletes’, adding that the pair ‘have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category.’
The statement highlighted ‘aggression’ against the boxers which it said was ‘based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure’.
It concluded: ‘Such an approach is contrary to good governance. Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence…The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.’
But Olympic chiefs’ decisions to ditch rules on gender testing for athletes have been branded ‘crazy’ by critics.
Speaking to sports scientist Professor Ross Tucker said: ‘Would you allow a 90kg fighter to fight against a 60kg fighter?
‘Because that’s more or less what the difference is in strength and power between male and female boxers.’
Tests on both Khelif and Yu-Ting revealed XY chromosomes in their systems.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
Speaking yesterday International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said: ‘Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.’
He added: ‘They are women in their passports and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.’
Sports scientists told that an absence of clear policy by the Olympics in this area had allowed the bizarre situation to develop.
Prior to 2021, the IOC set thresholds for the maximum amount of testosterone — the ‘male’ sex hormone — competitors in women’s events could have. These were picked up in blood tests, similar to ones for doping.
Rules on testosterone limits had been previosuly brought into sharp focus by the very public and famous case of Caster Semenya.
Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.
She became unable to compete at Tokyo in 2020 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.
IOC’s own testosterone monitoring policies were halted three years ago and replaced with a policy of ‘fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identify and sex variation’.
The IOC now provides individual sporting bodies in every country with ‘ten guiding principles’ they can use to make their own policies.
This controversial document states that athletes with ‘sex variations’, another term for DSDs, have ‘no presumption of advantage’ and that they should be allowed to compete in the category of their gender identity.
There are exceptions, with framework stating that an ‘evidence-based approach’ can be used to exclude athletes who have a ‘consistent unfair disproportionate advantage’ or if there is an ‘unpreventable risk’ to the safety of other athletes.
However, some sport scientists say that, by themselves, these guidelines are wooly and open to interpretation.
Federations that govern rugby, track and field, swimming and cycling have all introduced rules in some form to address biological males in women’s sport, though the exact details of policies vary.
And boxing did as well, with the International Boxing Association (IAB) requiring athletes to undergo ‘gender assessment’.
Though it doesn’t detail the exact nature of these assessments, it is this test that Khelif and Lin failed last year at the IAB’s Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.
At the time IBA president, Umar Kremlev, claimed the tests had proven both Khelif and Lin ‘had XY chromosomes’.
He added that they ‘uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women’.
Under these same rules and test results Khelif and Lin wouldn’t be able to compete this Olympics, but the IAB was stripped of its role in governing the sport for the Paris games by the IOC due to problems with the latter’s governance.
The IOC created via a new body, the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), to determine eligibility for competitors.
Documents from the PBU make no mention of gender or sex testing for male or female events, though they do set limits for the age of competitors, a passport being an acceptable ID for athletes and requiring boxers in the women’s category to declare if they are pregnant.
Defending its decision to approve Khelif and Lin as women the IOC’s Mr Adams added: ‘These athletes have competed many times before for many years. They haven’t just suddenly arrived.’
But sports scientist Professor Tucker, said the absence of clear policy by the IOC in this area had allowed this situation to occur.
‘Last year [Khelif and Lin] did not meet eligibility requirements and the only reason they do now is the body that did rule them ineligible has been moved aside,’ he said.
‘It’s due to a vacuum of policy, there’s no policy now.’