By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — Imane Khelif and Angela Carini exchanged some heavy blows of their 46-second contest within the Paris ring, enough to persuade Carini her Olympic debut was over.
The Italian boxer abruptly let go of her Algerian opponent on Thursday, went to her corner and stopped their fight – an especially rare occurrence in Olympic boxing.
Carini didn’t shake Khelif's hand after the referee formally raised her hand, but she cried within the ring after sinking to her knees. Minutes later, a still-crying Carini said she gave up due to the pain of the primary few punches.
“I felt a strong pain in my nose 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.
Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her participation within the Paris Olympics has turn out to be a polarizing issue.
Carini, who had a blood stain on her pants, said she was not making a political statement or refusing to fight Khelif. Carini also said she was not qualified to make a decision whether Khelif should compete.
“I was just doing my job as a boxer,” Carini said. “I got in the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and a broken heart because I couldn't make it to the last kilometer.”
Khelif is a successful amateur who won a silver medal on the 2022 International Boxing Federation World Championships. The IBA – which has been banned from the Olympics since 2019 after years of disputes with the IOC – disqualified her from last 12 months's championships shortly before her gold medal bout because she allegedly had elevated testosterone levels.
The 25-year-old entered the ring on the Paris Nord Arena to loud cheers, but the gang was confused by the sudden end of the fight. Italy's trainer Emanuele Renzini said he had discussed the fight with Carini and offered her the chance to tug out early, however the boxer was “very determined” to fight until the primary minute.
“I'm heartbroken because I'm a fighter,” Carini said. “My father taught me to be a warrior. I always stepped into the ring with honor and always served my country loyally. And this time I couldn't do it because I couldn't fight anymore, so I stopped the fight.”
With a win in Saturday's quarterfinal bout against Anna Luca Hamori, Hungary's first Olympic boxer, Khelif could come near an Olympic medal.
In temporary remarks to reporters, Khelif described the fight as “difficult for a first fight,” in line with The athlete“I am very well prepared because it took eight years to prepare.”
“It's my second Olympic Games after fifth place in Tokyo. I need an Olympic medal here in Paris,” she said.
Hamori expressed no concerns about fighting Khelif.
“I'm not afraid,” said Hamori, who defeated Australia's Marissa Williamson Pohlman. “I don't care about media coverage or social media.”
Khelif's passport states that she is a lady and has all the time competed as a lady, including on the Tokyo Olympics.
Hamori and Khelif have never fought before, but they’ve competed in the identical tournament before. Hamori has repeatedly said she doesn't concentrate to the controversy since it only hinders her path to gold.
“I try not to use my phone before the fight,” Hamori said. “I don't care about the comments, the story or the news. I just want to focus on myself.”
And Hamori could only shrug his shoulders at Carini’s decision to quit.
“It was her decision,” said Hamori. “I don't understand it because I thought every boxer thought like me, never give up. But it was her decision.”
After years of competing in amateur tournaments world wide, Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan are suddenly under intense scrutiny for his or her participation in Paris. Lin won the 2018 and 2022 IBA World Championships, however the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last 12 months because she allegedly failed a biochemical test to fulfill unspecified eligibility requirements.
Lin, who also competed at Tokyo 2020, begins her run in Paris on Friday. In her opening bout, she’s going to face Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan after receiving a first-round bye because the No. 1 seed within the 57-kilogram category, although Olympic seedings often don’t indicate the highest medal contenders in a division.
The Algerian Olympic Committee issued an announcement on Wednesday condemning what it called “lies” and “unethical attacking and slandering of our esteemed athlete Imane Khelif through baseless propaganda by certain foreign media.”
Lin has been an elite-level amateur boxer for a decade and Khelif for six years.
The IOC has repeatedly defended boxers' right to compete this week. This 12 months, Olympic boxing achieved gender parity for the primary time, with 124 men and 124 women competing in Paris.
The IOC said it made its decision on boxers' eligibility based on the gender rules that were in place on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Several sports have updated their gender rules prior to now three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Federation. The athletics governing body also tightened rules for gender-diverse athletes last 12 months.
The IOC is accountable for boxing in Paris since it withdrew the IBA's Olympic status after years of administrative problems, a scarcity of monetary transparency and diverse alleged cases of corruption within the refereeing and umpiring system.
The IBA is controlled by Russian President Umar Kremlev. He brought the Russian state-owned company Gazprom on board because the principal sponsor and relocated a big a part of the IBA's activities to Russia.
The IBA aggressively used the presence of the 2 boxers in Paris to criticise the IOC.
The federation issued an announcement on Wednesday claiming that each boxers didn’t take a “testosterone test” last 12 months but were subjected to “a separate and recognized test” to be disqualified. The IBA said the “details of the test remain confidential” and refused to supply further details.
The IBA ignored the IOC's recommendations and allowed Russian boxers to compete under the Russian flag on the 2023 World Championships. However, the governing body only disqualified Khelif after he defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva through the tournament.
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Associated Press author Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
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