Female Olympic boxer forfeits bout after 46 seconds to opponent mired in gender controversy: 'One punch hurt too much'

A female Olympic boxer threw in the towel after just 46 seconds into her fight Thursday after determining her opponent — who's been mired in a gender controversy — was hitting her too hard.

Italy's Angela Carini took a punch from Algeria's Imane Khelif in the women's 66-kilogram division — and then Carini signaled to her corner that she was done.

After Carini, 25, abandoned the fight, and Khelif's hand was being raised in victory, Carini was seen breaking down in tears and falling to her knees before eventually leaving the ring.

'She quit after taking one punch; she told me she didn't feel she could fight.'

Carini and her coach spoke to Italian press agency ANSA after the match to explain what happened.

"I got into the ring to fight," Carini said. "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 added.

Her coach Emanuele Renzini said Carini hadn't planned ahead of time to forfeit the match.

"It would have been easier not to show up, because all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days," Renzini said. "But Angela was motivated and wanted to do it."

He added, "Of course, when she met her opponent at the draw, she said 'it's not fair.' But there was no premeditation here today. She quit after taking one punch; she told me she didn't feel she could fight."

As Blaze News previously reported, the International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif at the 2023 world championships. IBA President Umar Kremlev said at the time that Khelif had "XY chromosomes." Males have XY chromosomes; females have XX chromosomes.

But the International Olympic Committee decided to drop the IBA as a governing body in June 2023 and put the IOC's Paris 2024 Boxing Unit in charge. The Paris Boxing Unit's rules have been described as more relaxed. The Guardian reported that the IOC noted Khelif's disqualification in its internal system, saying the fighter was "disqualified just hours before her gold medal showdown against Yang Liu at the 2023 world championships in New Delhi, India, after her elevated ­levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria."

Khelif reportedly blamed a "conspiracy" against Algeria as the reason for any gender-related accusations.

"People have conspired against Algeria so that its flag doesn't get raised, and it doesn't win the gold medal," Khelif said.

The Algerian Olympic Committee also weighed in, calling claims surrounding Khelif's gender "baseless," according to Fox News.

"COA strongly condemns the unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets," the committee said on Wednesday. "Such attacks on her personality and dignity are deeply unfair, especially as she prepares for the pinnacle of her career at the Olympics. The COA has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion."

ANSA cited a gay-centric Italian communications company that claimed Khelif actually is "intersex" and not transgender.

"In contrast to the reports that have been circulating, the Algerian athlete Imane Khelif is not a trans woman," said Rosario Coco of Gaynet Communications. "From the information we have about her, she is an intersex person who has always socialized as a woman and has a sporting history in women's competitions."

Khelif isn't the only fighter surrounded by this type of controversy in the women's boxing category.

Lin Yu‑ting of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) will fight Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in the 57 kg round of 16 Friday.

The IOC said that Lin was "stripped of her bronze medal" in 2023 at the world championships "after failing to meet eligibility requirements based on the results of a biochemical test."

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