PARIS – Algeria’s Imane Khelif, one of two female Olympic boxers disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing gender eligibility tests, entered the ring Thursday at the Paris Games.
It ended in abrupt and bizarre fashion.
Khelif prevailed when Italy’s Angela Carini stopped fighting 46 seconds into the bout. Carini reportedly was punched in the chin and it knocked her headgear loose.
She was seen consulting twice with her coach in the corner over what appeared to be a headgear problem.
The crowd at North Paris Arena greeted Khelif with cheers before the abbreviated fight at the Summer Olympics. The fight in the welterweight division at 66 kg (146 pounds) was scheduled for three three-minute rounds.
The issue of gender eligibility criteria surfaced at the 2023 world championships when Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan both won medals in the women’s competition before tournament officials announced the boxers had failed gender eligibility tests. They were stripped of their medals.
This week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the two boxers met criteria to compete in Paris, sparking discussion about gender eligibility tests.
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The world championships are overseen by the International Boxing Association (IBA), long plagued with scandal and controversy.
Last year the IOC banished the IBA and developed an ad-hoc unit that ran the Olympic boxing tournament at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and is doing the same here.
The IOC did not detail the criteria met by Khelif and Yu-Ting to compete here and in Tokyo, but did say the boxers’ passports state they are women.
Yu-Ting, 28, is scheduled to begin competition Friday against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the featherweight division at 57 kg (126 pounds).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic boxer Imane Khelif competes after gender eligibility issue
