Paris Olympics 2024: Italy’s Angela Carini Wasn't The Only One Who Took A Hit

The boxing bout between Algeria's Imane Khelif and Italy's Angela Carini has ensured that Paris Olympics 2024 will not go unremembered in history.

For it has thrown up a controversy, which, for all practical purposes, has given every section of the public to feel aggrieved.

Unless otherwise you were in coma till the previous minute, you would know what the issue is all about. The Italian woman boxer Angela Carini suddenly quit her bout against Imane Khelif after taking a hard blow to the face in the first round of the boxing welterweight (66kg) event in the ongoing Paris Olympics.

Carni took two solid punches on her chin and nose from Khelif, and in just 46 seconds, the Italian fighter called for her team to stop the fight. 

Carini slouched on her knees and was unable to control her sobbing and tears. She did not proffer her hand to the Algerian as is the custom after Khelif was declared the winner.

Carini said she had pulled out after being hit harder than she had ever been hit and feared her nose was broken. "I am heartbroken,” Carini said. "I went to the ring to honour my father. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this."

The Italian and a lot of feminists are upset about the gender identity of the Algerian boxer. Khelif was one of two boxers to fail a gender eligibility test ahead of the 2023 World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

Some reports claim that Khelif was found to have had a high level of testosterone, the International Boxing Association (IBA), which administered the test, said Khelif failed a 'separate and recognized test'.

"This test conclusively indicated that both athletes (Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting) did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors," IBA said.

Khelif is said to have XY chromosomes, which of course is a text-book definition for being a male. The other boxer in question, Lin, is scheduled to take on Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in a featherweight bout later Friday. So the controversy is not going to die anytime soon.

Feminists Land The First Blow 

Feminists are in a rage that persons of questionable gender status are unfairly elbowing out women. In fact, this particular case is being raised to the level of 'violence against women'.

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a tweet, "Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex." 

The usual suspects like Jake Paul and J K Rowling have also expressed outrage over Khelif competing against other women, and the issue snowballed into a global talking point.

Even the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chipped in by saying, "I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions … from my point of view it was not an even contest."

Australia’s boxing captain Caitlin Parker did not mince words at the prospect of one of her teammates is fighting in the same 66kg weight category as Khelif. "I don’t agree with them being allowed to compete in sport, especially combat sports. It can be incredibly dangerous."

On the other hand, transpersons feel that the whole incident has been spun viciously to project them in bad light and perpetuate old deep-rooted biases and antagonisms.

Khelif has never identified herself other than a woman. If she were a transgender, it would raise entirely different ethics concerns about her Olympic eligibility. But that is not the case. She is not intersex, either. At least not officially.

The transpersons are unhappy and disturbed that the controversy once again tars them in dark and diabolical colours even though they are the actual victims here. If she had complete advantage because of her gender status, she should never lose a bout in the boxing arena. But Khelif has lost several bouts before. Khelif's record as a boxer is: 50 fights, 37 victories, nine defeats and four draws.

IOC Let Its Guard Slip

No wait, there are others too who feel equally perturbed by the whole shenanigans. The sports-minded are concerned that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed the situation to such a pass because of its ineptness.

The IBA, which carried out the tests on Khelif and failed her, has been banned by the IOC. The latter has accepted Khelif's entry into the Olympics women's boxing event based solely on what is on the Algerian's passport. It reads woman against her name and that was good enough for the IOC to grant her entry.

But hold on, the right-wingers are crying wolf that Khelif could not have claimed to be a transgender person or any of the one that make up that rainbow spectrum because Algeria, a conservative Islamic country, does not recognise LGBT identities. The non-binary gender idea has no validity, legally and socially, in Algeria. 

But, the Muslim world and the Algerian are also dismayed at what they called as the unfair targeting of Kehlif. Their contention is a white woman crying in front of the cameras will always move the world at large, irrespective of the facts of the matter.

The Algerian Olympic Committee  claimed that Khelif was being maligned through unethical targeting  with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets. "Such attacks on her personality and dignity are deeply unfair," it added.

And for what it is worth, there are also who feel let down by the scientific community. They ask, "if having XY chromosomes makes one a male, how can a person possessing them be allowed to be called a female".

If fundamental classifications have aberrations, then what is the point of such scientific first principles, is the question bandied about.

Some Answers Needed, In Binary

As you can see, the sportspersons are unsettled at the turn of events. The feminists are up in arms over a woman being brought down through unfair means.

The trans community feels yet again at the butt of motivated attacks and fear-mongering. The sports world is dismayed over the state of affairs at the Olympics' apex body that it could not act or decide properly on an event that was always around the corner.

Also, the various rules at various competitions is never good for the homogenous running of sports. The right-wingers are crying hoarse at the lack of freedom for the LGBTQ persons. But nothing is ever said against them.

The Muslims are feeling disquiet at what they believe is another manifestation of Islamaphobia. Even the science and medical world finds itself in some strife over too many loose classifications. 

Such a wholesome controversy, if you can label it so, has never been seen before in the Olympics. In that sense, Paris 2024 is assured of a place in history books.  

The sensational event is unfortunate. But it should be used by the sporting community to settle the sex-gender issue which has been causing havoc to all concerned in myriad ways. If Carini and Khelif are both victims, who is the villain here? 

The cases of Caster Semenya, and India's Santhi Soundarajan and Dutee Chand had already thrown the sporting world into chaos. As gender issues and politics become more pronounced, some clarity in rules, in binary, is the need of the hour.