In what will hopefully be the end of a saga that even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) described as “sad”, Italian boxer Angela Carini has issued an apology to her competitor, Algeria’s Imane Khelif, for initiating the controversy around Khelif’s gender.
The last few days of the Paris 2024 Games have unfortunately been plagued by sensationalist stories, centred on misinformation around the gender of female boxer Imane Khelif.
The 25-year-old found herself in the middle of a media shit-storm, copping mass abuse online — including from the culture war/transphobia poster children Elon Musk and J. K. Rowling — when Carini (25 Y.O.) withdrew from their match after 46 seconds in the ring, and refused to shake her opponent’s hand.
What did Angela Carini say about Imane Khelif?
In a teary post-match interview, Carini told the press that she’d “never felt a punch” like what she received from Khelif.
“After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough,” she said.
“I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it.”
Unfortunately, these comments were made following news that Khelif and another female boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting, had both failed a controversial gender eligibility test at the 2023 boxing World Championships, despite them both being cisgender women.
As a result (because some people are literally the worst), Khelif’s gender came under scrutiny and folks online began saying all sorts of transphobic rhetoric, with calls for the biological female to be banned from competing in women’s events.
It got so bad that representatives from the IOC released a statement condemning the “witch hunt” and slammed media reports.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the statement said, referring to Ting and Khelif.
“The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.”
@apnews The International Olympics Committee said Friday that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was born a woman and eligible to compete in her fight against Italy’s Angela Carini. The IOC’s daily press conference had many questions on Khelif, who has landed in the middle of a culture war about gender in sports after Carini quit Thursday’s fight under a minute into the bout. #Olympics #Paris2024 #Boxing ♬ original sound – The Associated Press
Aussie world champion Skye Nicolson also weighed in, and called Carini’s comments a “publicity stunt”.
“I’ve actually fought and sparred both [Khelif and Ting]. They were born female. They were born with an XY chromosome, which is the male chromosome, but they were born with female bodies, they have the physical attributes of a female,” Nicholson said.
“These girls have represented their country on numerous occasions for many, many years now as female fighters, and they do not deserve this mistreatment.”
Angela Carini apologises to Imane Khelif for controversey
Though Imane Khelif maintained her eagerness to fight and win a medal at Paris 2024, after a few days of controversy Angela Carini issued a public apology to her competitor.
“All this controversy certainly made me sad, and I also felt sorry for my opponent, she had nothing to do with it and like me was only here to fight,” Carini told Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport.
Carini then explained why she made her post-match comments and refused a handshake.
“It was not intentional, in fact, I apologise to her and to everyone. I was angry, because my Games had already gone up in smoke,” she clarified.
“I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary if I happened to meet her again I would give her a hug.”
Khelif has not yet responded to the apology, as she prepares for her quarter-final match against Hungaria’s Anna Luca Hamori on Sunday.
Though the Paris 2024 Games have been mostly successful and positive, with the majority of stories celebrating the achievements of incredible athletes, it has faced various culture-war controversies
Prior to the saga above, an item at the Opening Ceremony sparked fury from conservative viewers for apparently “mocking” the Last Supper.
Additionally, people online have been outraged at the Paris 2024 organisers for making 30 per cent of meals in the Olympic Village plant-based.
Honestly, it seems like the real story here is that whenever the entire world comes together, all the most annoying people start getting pissy.
Let’s get back to the games part of the Olympic Games now, hey?
The Paris 2024 Games can be viewed live and on-demand on Channel Nine and 9Now, or on Stan.
[Image: Getty]
The post Angela Carini Apologises To Imane Khelif Over Comments That Sparked Olympic Gender Controversy appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
