- Imane Khelif had her first competition at the Olympic Games on Thursday morning
- The 25-year-old was rejected from the World Cup last year
- She has been given permission to compete here and has forced her opponent to give up
Footage has emerged of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif landing a hard right hand on her opponent, forcing the Italian to retire after just 46 seconds during their Olympic match on Thursday morning.
The 25-year-old Khelif has been allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris, despite being disqualified from last year’s world championships due to high testosterone levels.
On Thursday she took on Italy’s Angela Carini in her opening match at the Olympic Games and she immediately went all out, knocking Carini through the ring with a huge punch.
Carini stood, but the ball landed right on her chin. Moments later she walked to her corner and said: ‘It hurt like hell’.
After consulting with her team, Carini decided to forfeit the welterweight bout and Khelif was declared the winner.
Imane Khelif (left) hit her Italian opponent Angela Carini (right) with a huge right hand
Carini walked to her corner a moment later and told them: ‘It hurt terribly’
Carini’s corner informed the referee that she would not continue with the match
Khelif (right) was declared the winner of the competition and will advance to the next round
Carini was in tears after her loss, telling reporters: ‘I went into the ring to fight. I didn’t give up, but one blow hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m leaving with my head held high.’
Khelif’s participation in the Olympics attracted controversy after she was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi.
The Olympic Games website reported that Khelif was disqualified hours before a gold medal match against China’s Yang Liu in New Delhi because her elevated testosterone levels did not meet eligibility criteria.
The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) responded by saying the disqualification was part of a “conspiracy” to prevent them from winning a gold medal. According to the COA, “medical reasons” were the cause of the high testosterone levels.
Lin Yu-Ting from Taiwan was also disqualified from the world championships.
According to feminist website Reduxx, both sexes are thought to suffer from difference in sex development (DSD), a set of medical conditions diagnosed at birth in which the genitals are atypical in relation to chromosomes.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) said in a statement on Wednesday that the decisions were made “after careful assessment.”
The IBA stated that neither athlete had suffered a sports injury. testosterone tests, but were instead “subject to a separate and recognised test” administered at their 2022 and 2023 world championships.
Taiwan’s Ling Yu-Ting (pictured) has been cleared to compete despite also being disqualified from last year’s world championships.
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It is claimed that the tests ‘conclusively demonstrated that both athletes did not meet the required eligibility criteria’, with both boxers ‘appeared to have a competitive advantage over other female competitors.’
The IBA hit out at the IOC, saying its rules were a deviation from the rules.raise serious questions about both the fairness of the competition and the safety of the athletes.’
The IBA is not responsible for the IOC withdrawing its recognition of the Olympic competition due to ongoing governance problems. The organization has established the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit to organize the event.
The Boxing Unit has approved the participation of both boxers under the rules that apply to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. These rules are less strict than those of the IBA.
Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting competed in Tokyo, but both lost in the early rounds of their respective events.
