Boxer Angela Carini won her eighth Italian women’s title on Sunday, marking a comeback after withdrawing against a controversial opponent at the Paris Olympics.
“Tonight was my revenge,” Carini told reporters after the match via The Telegraph, months after she was punched in the face by an athlete whose birth gender has been questioned.
Carini, 26, withdrew from her fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif in Paris after several powerful blows to the head. Khelif’s participation in the Olympics was the biggest controversy at the Paris Games after the Algerian failed gender eligibility tests to compete in other international women’s boxing events.
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Algeria’s Imane Khelif (in red) beats Italy’s Angela Carini in the women’s 16-66-kilogram preliminary round during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the North Paris Arena in Villepinte, August 1, 2024. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images)
Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships, and IBA president Umar Kremlev said the boxer had “XY chromosomes”, which are associated with biological males.
Cute leave her match against Khelif after just 46 seconds.
“I stepped into the ring to fight,” Carini said in Paris, via Italy’s ANSA. “I didn’t give up, but one blow hurt too much. And so I said ‘enough’.”
Algeria’s Imane Khelif (right) defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in the women’s 66-kilogram preliminary event at the 2024 Summer Olympics on August 1, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Carini earlier told reporters her goal at the Olympics was to win a medal for her late father.
Khelif won gold in Paris and was not the only boxer to win women’s gold who was disqualified for failing gender eligibility tests. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting also won gold in another women’s weight class in Paris, sparking similar outrage.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended the inclusion of Khelif and Yu-ting in the women’s events to the end.
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Khelif later filed a lawsuit against multiple people, including Elon Musk and JK Rowling, who criticized the athlete and the IOC for its inclusion, alleging sex-based “acts of aggravated cyber harassment.”
Khelif threatened a new lawsuit in November against a French journalist over a report claiming the boxer had testicles.
“We will meet the French journalist in court,” the Algerian athlete said via NDTV.
Carini previously said she wanted to ‘apologise’ to Khelif for the withdrawal which brought negative attention to the Algerian.
Angela Carini of Italy before a women’s 66-kilogram preliminary round match against Imane Khelif of Algeria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the North Paris Arena, August 1, 2024, in Paris. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
“All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini said via the BBC. “I’m also sorry for my opponent. If the IOC says she can fight, I respect that decision.”
Carini gave Khelif a cold shoulder after the fight and said she regretted it.
“It wasn’t something I planned to do,” Carini said. “I actually want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics went up in smoke.”
Still, Carini felt like a sense of “revenge” was being fulfilled on Sunday.
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