IMAGE: Imane Khelif of Algeria is seen during her fight against Angela Carini of Italy. File Photograph: Isabel Infantes / Reuters. The storm brewing over the participation of Algeria boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics overshadowed the sixth day of the women's competition on Thursday when defending welterweight champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey got off to a winning start.
Khelif, who has been in the spotlight for failing a gender eligibility test at a tournament last year, progressed to the welterweight quarter-finals after Italian opponent Angela Carini abandoned the bout after 46 seconds.
Carini later explained that she had decided not to fight after feeling intense pain in her nose. Khelif will next face either Hungarian Luca Anna Hamori or Australia's Marissa Williamson in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Surmeneli, who clinched Turkey's first ever boxing gold in Tokyo, is one fight away from ensuring another medal after her 4-1 win over Poland's Aneta Rygielska.
The European Games and twice world champion had a poor second round, but clinched the win after finishing ahead on every judge's scorecard in the third round.
In Thursday's opening bout, Asian Games and world champion Wu Yu of China was a class above her Indian opponent Nikhat Zareen, landing a number of devastating blows to score a unanimous win in the flyweight bout.
IMAGE: Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey celebrates after winning her fight against Aneta Rygielska of Poland. File Photograph: Isabel Infantes / Reuters. "This is my first Olympics. I want to enjoy it. This is my biggest stage," Wu said.
"I want to go all the way. This is the first time I've met so many people. I've been to the World Championships before. There were a lot of spectators, but not as many as this. I was very excited."
Wu's compatriot Chang Yuan beat Bulgarian Stanimira Petrova in a bantamweight quarter-final, while in the men's lightweight category, Wyatt Sanford ensured Canada's first boxing medal since 1996 with a 4-1 win over Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan.
Italy's Carini abandons fight against Khelif, fuelling gender debate
Italian boxer Angela Carini pulled out of the Paris Olympics on Thursday after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.
Khelif, whose participation in the Games was permitted by the IOC and had divided boxers, landed multiple punches in the first 30 seconds before a powerful right to Carini's nose prompted the Italian to raise her hand and return to her corner.
Her coach signalled she was pulling out of the women's welterweight round of 16 bout. A distraught Carini fell to her knees in the ring, sobbing and declining to shake Khelif's hand after the referee declared the Algerian the winner.
"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," Carini told reporters after abandoning the bout. "This time I couldn’t make it."
"I didn’t lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity."
Khelif and Taiwan's double world champion Lin Yu-ting were cleared to fight in Paris after the IOC last year stripped the IBA of its status as boxing's governing body over governance issues, and took charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition.
Both had been disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing International Boxing Association (IBA) eligibility rules that prevent athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women's events.
Broken dreams and a 'difficult bout'
Khelif described the bout as difficult.
"Insh’allah for the second fight. I am very prepared because it’s been eight years of preparation," she told reporters. "I need an Olympic medal here in Paris."
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.
British author J.K. Rowling, who has become an outspoken figure on the definition of what it is to be a woman, said Carini's dreams had been shattered by unjust rules.
"A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her," Rowling wrote on X.
"#Paris2024 will be forever tarnished by this brutal injustice," she added.
Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Carini's bout against Khelif was not a fight among equals.
"I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women's competitions," Meloni was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA.
"And not because you want to discriminate against someone, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms."
Carini told Reuters her dreams had been shattered.
"I'm out, my dream is over," she said. "So I felt really sad, with a broken heart. It's not right for my Olympics to end here, it's not right for my dream to end here, because an athlete makes so many sacrifices."
"I'm not ashamed to say that I gave up, I'm not even afraid to go back to that ring."
