Olympic Boxer Sticks Up for Rival in Gender Hubbub

Italian boxer Angela Carini apologizes to Algerian foe Imane Khelif
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 2, 2024 2:23 PM CDT
Olympic Boxer Sticks Up for Rival in Gender Hubbub
Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, defeated Italy's Angela Carini in their women's preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Thursday in Paris.   (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Outcry continues to swirl around an Olympic women's boxer who some say shouldn't have been fighting other women. Italy's Angela Carini bowed out of her match on Thursday against Algeria's Imane Khelif after taking a pretty hard hit right in the face from Khelif, renewing questions about Khelif's gender and spurring a torrent of transphobic rhetoric against Khelif, even though Khelif isn't transgender nor considers herself intersex. More on the controversy:

  • The facts: USA Today and the AP offer a fact check on the basics, including that the 25-year-old Khelif was indeed born a woman and has never identified as a man. Her passport also lists her as a woman, which is what the International Olympic Committee uses as a gauge for eligibility. Rolling Stone notes that Algeria, the country Khelif is representing at the Games, has strict anti-LGBTQ laws that don't allow people to transition.
  • DSD: What Khelif does reportedly have is differences in sexual development, or DSD, "a set of rare conditions involving genes, hormones, and reproductive organs that can cause the sexual development of a person to be different than others," per USA Today, citing the UK's NHS. In some cases, the person may have XY chromosomes, typically seen in males, "but develop otherwise female."

  • Disqualification: Khelif and another boxer from Taiwan were disqualified last year from fighting at the World Championships, with the International Boxing Association claiming that Khelif was shown to have high levels of testosterone in her system, and that her participation would violate IBA rules against athletes with XY chromosomes from competing as women, per Reuters. It's never been shown outside of the IBA that Khelif has high testosterone levels or XY chromosomes.
  • Lingering questions: Khelif "had previously competed without issues and was disqualified by the sport's governing body only after she defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament," notes the AP, which calls the disqualification "extremely murky." The outlet adds that the IBA "is controlled by Umar Kremlev, who is Russian." The IOC this week called the IBA's decision a "sudden and arbitrary decision." The IBA, which was banned from the Olympics in 2019, is sticking with its original stance.
  • 'Biological edge'? That's what HuffPost says "many, if not most, world-class athletes have" in the first place, citing swim champ Michael Phelps as one example. Phelps "fortuitously inherited a gene that makes him produce half the amount of lactic acid as the average person, a mutation that gives him the ability to recover from physical activity far faster than his peers." The outlet adds: "His 80-inch wingspan and double-jointed ankles also help."
  • The pile-on: Big names went online to misgender Khelif and decry her taking part in the Olympics. "Men don't belong in women's sports," swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines posted Thursday on X, along with the hashtag #IStandWithAngelaCarini. X owner Elon Musk retweeted Gaines, adding, "Absolutely." Harry Potter author JK Rowling, meanwhile, put up a photo of the two boxers, citing "the smirk of a male [who] knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head, and whose life's ambition he's just shattered."
  • Carini: The other boxer at the center of this storm, who refused to shake Khelif's hand after leaving their fight, now wants to apologize to her, per the BBC. "All this controversy makes me sad," Carini, also 25, told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision." Carini also said she stormed out of the ring simply because she was upset at seeing her Olympics dream go up in smoke, and that if she sees Khelif again, she'll "embrace her."
(More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)

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