FIGHTING Imane Khelif was “worse than sparring men”, according to one of her former opponents.
The Algerian boxer is at the centre of controversy after her Olympics last 16 fight with Italian fighter Angela Carini, who quit inside 46 seconds.
Khelif, has seen her involvement in the Olympics deemed controversial after she was disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships for failing to meet eligibility criteria.
The International Olympic Committee said Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.
After receiving a couple of lofty blows, Carini, 25, returned to her corner and raised her hand, telling her coach: “It hurts too much”.
The emotional Italian boxer said: “It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.”
Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara also suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of Khelif, back in 2022.
Months later, in March 2023, Khelif was disqualified before the aforementioned IBA final of the IBA due to the levels of testosterone in her system, prompting Tamara to speak out.
The 25-year-old said: “When I fought with Khelif I felt very out of my depth… her blows hurt me a lot.
“I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they (the IBA) finally realised.”
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However, another previous opponent of Khelif’s has vocalised her support for the Olympic star.
The Algerian was defeated by Irish boxer Amy Broadhurst in the 2022 IBA Women’s Light-welterweight World Boxing Championships.
Broadhurst has rejected claims the Algerian is cheating at the Olympics after pointing to her indifferent record in the past.
The 2022 Commonwealth champ said: “I don’t think she’s done anything to cheat.
“I think it’s the way she was born and that’s out of her control.
“The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all.”
Broadhurst had been selected to box for Team GB in an Olympics qualifier earlier this year but was defeated and failed to make the team.
THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) stirred up a huge controversy by clearing two women to box who had previously failed a gender test.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified at the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi, India, in March 2023.
Lin Yu-ting was stripped of a bronze medal after failing a gender eligibility test.
Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.
Officials found tests showed they had ‘XY chromosomes’ — which indicates a person is biologically male.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association organised that event but is no longer recognised by the IOC.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived – they competed in Tokyo.
“The federation needs to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness but at the same time there is the ability for everyone to take part that wants to. That is a difficult balance.
“In the end the experts for each sport are the people who work in that. If there is a big advantage that clearly is not acceptable, but that needs to be a decision made at that level.”
Both Khelif and Lin competed at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women Amateur Boxing Championships.
The IOC said all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.
The controversy follows the famous case of Caster Semenya.
South African middle-distance runner Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.
She won gold in the 800m at London 2012 and Rio in 2016 but was unable to compete at Tokyo in 2021 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.
Khelif is one of two boxers permitted to fight, alongside Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who was stripped of a bronze medal at last year’s World Championships after failing a gender eligibility test.
The 2023 World Championships, from which Khelif and Lin were disqualified, were organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
But last June, the IBA were stripped of its status as the sport’s world governing body by the IOC, which organised the boxing competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and is doing so again for Paris.
The IOC then cleared Khelif to compete at Paris.
Khelif has won 42 of her 50 fights – six by knockout – and lost nine. Four victories have later been disqualified.
She next fights Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori in the quarter-finals of the women’s 66kg contest on Saturday.
This is a more complicated case than the barrage of shameful transgender scandals which have engulfed women’s sport in recent years.
Khelif reportedly has a condition called Swyer Syndrome which means she has some female reproductive organs but also much higher levels of testosterone than women.
As a result, she has a superior physicality to females, which can be seen by her tall, powerful frame.
In other words, she has an unfair advantage.
And that’s why there’s been such a furious response, led by JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and Martina Navratilova, to the footage of Carini quitting after being smashed in the face.
The obvious, indisputable, medical, and scientific, truth is that someone born with male biology of any kind has an obvious physical advantage over biological females.
That’s why we keep the sexes apart in the Olympics.
Otherwise, women would barely win a single medal.
To pretend otherwise is to be either utterly deluded or wilfully dishonest.
