Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lashed out at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after female boxer, Italy’s Angela Carini, conceded her match with Algerian transgender boxer Imane Khelif after only 46 seconds.
“We must be careful not to discriminate in order to avoid discrimination,” Meloni said. “The fact that Angela has withdrawn makes me even sadder,” she continued.
“There was no level playing field here,” said the Italian prime minister.
Currently, two athletes born as biological males are competing in the female boxing competition at the Paris Olympics. Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who failed a chromosomal test with the International Boxing Association (IBA) last year that clearly proved they had XY chromosomes and were disqualified from the women’s world boxing championships. However, the IOC, unlike the IBA, has decided to allow both of them to compete against biological women at the Olympics.
The Italian athlete, whose nose was broken by her opponent’s first punch, said she had never been hit as hard as she was by the biologically male Algerian and left the ring in tears.
Former Australian bantamweight world champion of the International Boxing Federation, nicknamed the “Blonde Bomber” was even harsher in her criticism:
