Johnathan Walker:Olympic boxer at center of gender eligibility controversy wins bizarre first bout

PARIS – Algeria's Imane Khelif,Johnathan Walker one of two female Olympic boxers disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing gender eligibility tests, entered the ring Thursday at the Paris Games.

Her bout ended in abrupt and bizarre fashion.

Khelif prevailed when Italy’s Angela Carini stopped fighting after 46 seconds.

Carini was punched in the nose and shortly afterward said she didn't want to fight anymore, according to Italian coach Emanuele Renzini

"After one punch she feel big pain,'' Renzini told reporters,.

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Carini wept when speaking with reporters after the fight and spoke only in Italian. Translation of her comments was not immediately available.

But Renzini said Carini had been told not to take the fight and it had been weighing on her as the bout approached.

During the first round, Carini consulted with her coach twice before the fight was halted. Officially, Khelif won by ABD (abandoned).

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The crowd at North Paris Arena greeted Khelif with cheers before the abbreviated fight at the Summer Olympics and several Algeria flags were seen among the crowd. The fight in the welterweight division at 66 kg (146 pounds) was scheduled for three three-minute rounds.

The issue of gender eligibility criteria surfaced at the 2023 world championships when Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan both won medals in the women’s competition before tournament officials announced the boxers had failed gender eligibility tests. They were stripped of their medals.

This week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the two boxers met criteria to compete in Paris, sparking discussion about gender eligibility tests.

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The world championships are overseen by the International Boxing Association (IBA), long plagued with scandal and controversy.

Last year the IOC banished the IBA and developed an ad-hoc unit that ran the Olympic boxing tournament at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and is doing the same here.

The IOC did not detail the criteria met by Khelif and Yu-Ting to compete here and in Tokyo, but did say the boxers’ passports state they are women.

Yu-Ting, 28, is scheduled to begin competition Friday against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the featherweight division at 57 kg (126 pounds).

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