International Federation rewards boxer who dropped out of Olympic Games Khelif

The International Boxing Federation (IBA) will financially reward boxer Angela Carini after the Italian was eliminated by Algeria’s Imane Khelif in the 66kg category at the women’s Olympic tournament in Paris in 2024, the organization said.

“The International Boxing Federation will award Angela Carini, who refused to fight Algerian Imane Khelif at the 2024 Games in Paris after 46 seconds of the first round, a financial prize equivalent to that awarded to an Olympic champion,” said IBA President, Russia Umar Kremlev.

The IBA offers the gold medal winner a prize of $100,000 (about €91,000), which will be distributed among the boxer ($50,000), the federation of the respective country ($25,000), and the athlete’s coach ($25,000).

Carini retired after 46 seconds after being punched in the nose and was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Imane Khelif, one of two boxers at the center of the Olympic boxing tournament’s gender controversy.

“I couldn’t see her tears. I am not indifferent to these situations and I assure you that we will protect and support all boxers. I cannot understand why women’s boxing is being killed. Only worthy athletes should perform in the ring to ensure everyone’s safety,” Umar Kremlev responded.

The Kremlin also assured that the organization will support Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova, who lost on Friday in the 57 kg weight category to Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, another boxer whom the IBA considers ineligible and stripped of her bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships for “not meeting the qualification standards based on the results of biochemical tests,” as specified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IBA denied conducting tests to measure testosterone levels in boxers, but did not disclose the basis for the disqualification of Khelif and Yu-ting, who were allowed to compete in the Asian Games that same year and won a gold medal in the 57 kg category.

“These are women who are playing their sport. In this case, it has been established that they are women,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams confirmed on Tuesday, noting that this is Yu-ting’s second Games since she was eliminated in the first round at Tokyo 2020.

The gender issue is causing a battle between the IOC and the IBA that could even threaten the Olympic boxing tournaments in their current form, but Yu-ting and Khelif appear to have the backing of the organisation led by German Thomas Bach.

The Algerian came under particular attack after Carini retreated after less than a minute of fighting, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saying the athletes were “not on equal terms” and Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president of the United States, writing on the social media site X that he would keep “men out of women’s sports.”