Despite so many sports at the Paris Olympics, Imane Khelif has basically stolen most of the show due to reports of her being transgender.
Imane Khelif of Algeria won her opening Olympic boxing bout when opponent Angela Carini decided that two punches were all she needed to quit the bout.
Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who failed gender eligibility tests in 2023, has been the source of intense anger online for apparently being a man and fighting against women.
The backlash was already intense, but now many have something else to be upset about after footage surfaced after the bout showing Imane Khelif seemingly sexually assaulting Carini.
The slow-motion video below shows Khelif touching the boob of Carini as the disgruntled boxer walks past away, clearly upset about the result of having to throw in the white towel.
Khelif was likely just trying to give Carini a simple pat as most athletes do to their opponents, but because of talks of her possibly being a man, this video is not going over well.
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Carini told her coach, Emanuel Renzini, that her nose hurt too much for her to continue this bout, and although her coach urged her to try and make it, she would raise her hand for a second time after taking just one more punch from Khelif and asked once more to abandon the fight.
“She’s too strong,” Renzini recalled Carini telling him.
A visibly emotional Carini addressed reporters as she apologized to her country for lasting only 46 seconds against Imane Khelif.
“I had entered the ring to fight,” Carini said in Italian after. “I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I go out with my head held high,” she said per ABC News.
Khelif’s thoroughly dominant showing only led to more backlash surrounding her gender.
Imane Khelif Was Previously Disqualified Over Her Gender
In 2023, at the World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, Khelif was disqualified before her gold-medal bout as a result of International Boxing Association rules that prevent athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.
The International Olympic Committee did not agree with the ruling and stripped the IBA of its status as the global governing body for boxing.
The IOC’s Paris 2024 Boxing unit chose to disregard the results of Khelif and Yu-Ting’s gender eligibility tests last year.
