The International Boxing Federation (IBA) will award $50,000 in prize money to Italian Angela Carini, who lost her welterweight round of 16 fight against Algerian Imane Khelif in 46 seconds at the Paris Olympic Games on Thursday, it said on Friday.
Carini retired in the first round after the Algerian, who is involved in a gender feud, bombarded the Italian with a barrage of punches.
The IBA, which was stripped of international recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, said Carini would receive $50,000, her federation another $25,000 and her coach another $25,000.
Editor's Favorites
2 relatives
“I don't understand why they abolished women's boxing,” said IBA President Umar Kremlev. “For safety reasons, only qualified athletes should compete in the ring. I couldn't see their tears.”
Algerian Khelif and Taiwanese double world champion Lin Yu-ting were allowed to compete in Paris despite being disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for violating the IBA's rules of participation, which prohibit athletes with male XY chromosomes from participating in women's competitions.
Last year, the IOC withdrew the IBA's status as boxing's governing body for reasons of work-life balance and took over the management of the 2024 boxing competition in Paris itself. But now it finds itself at the centre of a dispute over the couple's participation.
Next up, welterweight Khelif will face Hungarian Luca Anna Hamori.
In an interview with the Italian daily Gazetta dello Sport published on Friday, Carini said it was not her intention to trigger such a heated controversy.
“All these controversies made me sad, of course, and I also felt sorry for my opponent. She had nothing to do with it and, just like me, was just here to fight,” she said.
“It was not intentional, in fact I apologize to her and to everyone. I was angry because my games had already gone up in smoke. I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary, if I happened to see her again, I would hug her.”
“Abuse”
The IOC said the IBA's decision to disqualify the boxers last year was arbitrary and the main reason for the furore, which saw figures such as British author JK Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk express their opposition to the boxers' participation in the Games.
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who met with IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday, said the Italian athlete had competed against a physically superior boxer and that it was not a fight between equals.
However, WBC women's featherweight champion Skye Nicolson pointed out that Khelif and Lin had both been beaten by women several times throughout their careers and said they “did not deserve this mistreatment.”
“I actually fought and sparred with both girls,” the Australian said in an Instagram post.
“They grew up as girls, as women, as girls. They competed as women all the time. These are not born men who decided to call themselves women or identify as women in order to compete against women in the Olympics.
“I have the feeling that the thing with the Italian girl was mostly a publicity stunt.
Some sports have limited the testosterone levels of athletes in women's competitions, while others prohibit all athletes after puberty from participating.
Differences in sexual dysfunction (DSD) are a group of rare disorders that affect genes, hormones and reproductive organs. Some people with DSD are raised as females but have XY sex chromosomes and blood testosterone levels that are in the male range.
The IOC said the conditions of participation were based on those of the 2021 Tokyo Games and could not be changed during a competition.
