“I couldn’t finish the match.” Angele Carini explains decision to exit fight with Imane Khelif.

By: Sean Crose

The Olympic Games in Paris have another major controversy on their hands – and this time the controversy comes courtesy the sport of boxing. While competing in the women’s boxing category Thursday, Italy’s Angele Carini quit her fight against Imane Khelif just 46 seconds into the first round. After getting hit clean, Carini put an end to the entire bout. The reason? The fighter said she had never been hit so hard in her life. It all would simply be seen as an impressive performance from Khalif if not for the fact that, “Khalif’s gender identity,” as NBC puts it, “has recently been questioned.”

Gender in sports has been a controversial issue for some time, and it was perhaps inevitable that matters should come to a head in boxing, one of the single most violent sports on earth. Khelif has been denied the ability to fight as a woman as recently as last year. As The New York Times puts it: “Khelif was permitted to compete at the Olympics even though she has been barred from some women’s competitions for not meeting eligibility requirements to compete in women’s events.”

“We have to pay attention, in an attempt to not discriminate, that we’re actually discriminating,” Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni said. “In these things what counts is your dedication, your head and character, but it also counts having a parity of arms.” Carini herself described the very brief match against Khelif as being a physically overwhelming experience. “I felt a severe pain in my nose,” she said, “and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match.” 

Carini indicated that she showed up to compete, but was not ashamed of stepping away from the bout in the opening round. “I got into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high,” she said. “After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want. I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it.”

Carini argued afterward she was not in a position to judge Khelif. “It could have been the match of a lifetime,” she said, “but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.” Having won against Carini, Khelif is looking forward. “I’m here for the gold,” the fighter said to the British Broadcasting Corporation. “I fight everybody.” Notables such as mutli-divisional boxing champion Claressa Shields, and author J.K. Rowling are less than happy Khelif is being allowed to fight in the women’s boxing category.

“I can understand her (Carini’s) devastation,” Sheild’s told Fox News, “but it shouldn’t be ruined due to a man. And I think that the Olympics definitely dropped the ball.”