BREAKING: Italian female boxer falls to her knees and cries as she abandons fight against Olympic opponent deemed biologically male after just 46 SECONDS following two powerful punches to the face that dislodged her helmet.
She refused the handshake, fell to the canvas sobbing as the emotional Italian broke down in tears after just two punches.Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, 25, fought Italy’s Angela Carini, 25 despite being banned from a major boxing contest before the Olympics.
After the match was stopped, the referee raised Khelif’s hand in the air. But a visibly furious Carini yanked her hand away from the fight official before exiting the ring without shaking her opponent’s hand.
Ignoring the Algerian, the Italian fighter then dropped to her knees and burst into tears as she said she had never felt such strong blows in a contest before.
Speaking after the match, the heartbroken Italian said: ‘I have always honoured my country with loyalty. This time I didn’t succeed because I couldn’t fight anymore. So I put an end to the match.’
She said she did not walk away from the fight as a protest against her opponent’s inclusion, but that was a decision for the Olympics to consider.
She was taken away for medical assessment to examine the seriousness of her facial injuries which included a bruised nose.
Khelif was thrown out of last year’s world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.
But despite her gender test problems, she was admitted to the Olympics amid a huge furore.
Olympics officials at Paris 2024 have accepted her as a female and state so in her official games biography.
Should biologically born men compete with women in sports?
The issue surrounding Alegrian fighter Imene Khelif sparked a worldwide debate after Italian boxer Angela Carini abruptly withdrew from their Olympic match. Khelif was barred by the International Boxing Association from competing with women after she was tested to be biologically male.
Danish researchers say that one in 15,000 males grows up as a girl. They grow up with a woman’s body, and mostly only discover well into puberty that they are different. They are girls with XY chromosome and are genetically boys.
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