Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Imane Khelif’s boxing fight against Italy’s Angela Carini in the women’s 66kg round of 16. The fight is the focal point of one of Paris 2024’s biggest controversies, with Algerian Khelif the subject of gender, genetic and eligibility polarisation.
Khelif, alongside Taiwanese/Chinese Taipei fighter Lin Yu-Ting, is expelled from fighting in International Boxing Association (IBA) competition on the basis of a “failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations”.
That last bit is important because the IBA has been stripped of its right to run Olympic events owing to separate governance concerns, so IOC eligibility ruling is final for the Olympics, and they deem that because Khelif and Yu-Ting are female on their passports, they are allowed to compete in the Olympics. To be clear, this is not, as IBA President Umar Kremlin has alleged, a transgender debate, but a genetic one as Khelif and Yu-Ting’s failure to meet criteria owes to the fact their DNA is made up of XY chromosomes, whereas biological women usually have XX chromosomes. The highest profile case of this is Caster Semenya’s, who is also DSD (differences of sexual development); she is unable to compete as World Athletics are governing the track and field events at Paris, rather than the IOC.
Khelif is therefore within her legal right to compete today, but opinions on the issue are polarised. Australian boxing squad captain Caitlin Parker is the only Olympic athlete so far to vocalise her disagreement, whilst Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara who fought and lost convincingly to Khelif just three months before her first genetic test failure, has also voiced opposition. The IBA of course rules against it and outside official documents are quite emotive in their contention, whilst former featherweight World Champion Barry McGuigan has labelled it ‘shocking’.
There are some people vouching for Khelif and Yu-Ting, Parker’s compatriot, boxing coach Santiago Nieva being one, as well as several IOC spokespeople. Either way, the volume of discourse about this fight, and Khelif, makes the bout against Italy’s Carini today a compelling one.
Carini is an excellent boxer herself and boasts two gold World Championship medals as well as a 40-14 record – stay tuned for all the updates.