Angela Carini is an Italian amateur boxer from Naples in the Campania region. Born on Oct. 6, 1998, Carini is 25, and her amateur career began in 2013 when she was just 14. She’s fought 108 times, winning 84 of those bouts, with 4 of those wins coming by way of knockout.
Carini was chosen to represent her country in the boxing event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She had big hopes of winning a medal in the women’s 66kg division at the games.
When the preliminary round of 16 fights was announced, she was drawn against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. After stepping into the ring to face Khelif, her Olympic hopes were quickly dashed — but what happened?
What happened when Angela Carini fought Imane Khelif?
On Aug. 1, 2024, Angela Carini confidently made her ring walk to an Olympic boxing ring to face Imane Khelif. Carini and Khelif stood in opposite corners — the former in the blue corner, the latter in the red corner — as the crowd watched on in the arena and worldwide, anticipating a good fight.
The bell rang to begin the bout, and both fighters began to feel each other out, testing their respective ranges. However, after only 46 seconds, Carini withdrew from the fight. Soon after, she told the Italian sports publication Gazzetta dello Sport she quit because Khelif’s punches were unlike any she’d felt before, hurt too much, and made her nose bleed. Her words about it were, “My face and nose were hurting. I couldn’t breathe anymore. I thought about my family, I looked at my brother in the stands and I went to my corner to retire. I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch.”
This incident kickstarted a fresh wave of backlash against Khelif and proclamations that ranged from calling her a “man,” stressing that she is a transgender, and how she shouldn’t be in the Olympics.
Khelif was born female and is innocent of any wrongdoing. However, as PBS states, she had previously been disqualified from the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships when the IBA cited high levels of testosterone in her system which is the result of a disorder of sex development, a crucial point many are failing to acknowledge. Reuters also suggests that IBA president Umar Kremlev told a Russian news agency she had “XY chromosomes” (those typically found in males).
Whether or not her rare circumstances give her an unfair advantage remains open to debate, but it’s not her doing — and she isn’t a man or transgender as many have mistakenly suggested. It’s also worth noting that she’s lost nine of her 52 career bouts.
Carini has since apologized to Khelif, saying to Gazzetta dello Sport, “I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. If I were to meet her again, I would embrace her.”
Following her withdrawal from her bout with Khelif, the IBA (the organization lost its Olympic recognition after concerns over transparency were investigated) decided to award Carini $50,000 — the same amount of prize money an Olympic champion typically receives.