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Italian boxer Angela Carini spoke out Friday about her match against Algerian Imane Khelif, who is one of two people involved in a gender controversy at the Paris Olympics.
Carini abandoned her match against Khelif about 46 seconds into their matchup. Carini was punched in the face twice and was heard yelling about the fairness of the fight to her coaches. She was in tears after the match and emotional while talking to reporters about the fight.
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On Friday, Carini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport that she wanted to “apologize” to Khelif.
“All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini said, via BBC. “I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.”
Carini was seen giving Khelif the cold shoulder after the right. She said it was one of the things she regretted about the match.
“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said. “Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
Khelif will fight in the next round on Saturday against Hungarian Luca Hamori.
The Algerian fighter has been under the microscope after the International Boxing Association deemed that Khelif failed gender eligibility tests, and the president of the organization claimed the boxer had “XY chromosomes.”
The International Olympic Committee defended Khelif’s eligibility on Thursday as the gender controversy heated up.
“These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA,” the IOC said of Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting. “Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
“According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”
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