“I couldn’t finish the fight.” Angele Carini explains his decision to abandon his fight with Imane Khelif.
By: Sean Crose
The Paris Olympics have had another major controversy – and this time it involved boxing. During the women’s boxing event on Thursday, Italy’s Angele Carini walked away from Imane Khelif just 46 seconds into the first round. After being hit, Carini finished the entire fight. The reason? The boxer said she had never been hit so hard in her life. It would all have been considered an impressive performance by Khalif if it weren’t for the fact that “Khalif’s gender identity,” as NBC put it, “has recently come into question.”
Gender in sports has been a contentious issue for some time, and it was perhaps inevitable that things would come to a head in boxing, one of the most violent sports in the world. Khelif was denied the opportunity to fight as a woman last year. As New York Times “Khelif was allowed to compete in the Olympics even though she was banned from some women’s competitions because she did not meet the requirements to compete in women’s events,” said Khelif.
“We have to be mindful, in our efforts not to discriminate, that we are in fact discriminating,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said“In these things, it is important to have commitment, your mind and your character, but it is also important to have a balance of strength.” Carini herself described the very short fight with Khelif as a physically overwhelming experience. “I felt a sharp pain in my nose,” she said, “and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough’, because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the fight.”
Carini said she showed up to fight, but was not ashamed to leave the fight in the opening round. “I went in to fight. I don’t quit, but one punch hurt so much that I said enough. I’m going to leave with my head held high,” she said. “After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a sharp pain in my nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want to. I can’t finish the fight after a punch to the nose. So it was better to end it.”
Carini later argued that she was in no position to judge Khelif. “It could have been the fight of a lifetime,” she said, “but I also had to save my life at that moment.” After her win over Carini, Khelif is looking to the future. “I’m here to win the gold medal,” the fighter told BBC. “I fight everyone.” Celebrities like multi-weight boxing champion Claressa Shields and author JK Rowling were less than pleased that Khelif was allowed to fight in the women’s boxing category.
“I can understand her (Carini’s) pain,” Sheild said. Fox News, “But it shouldn’t be ruined because of one man. And I think the Olympics definitely dropped the ball.”
