It took just 46 seconds for Italian boxer Angela Carini to realize at the Paris Olympics that if she stayed in the ring with the male she was being forced to compete against, she might not leave with her face intact. That’s how hard she was hit by Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who has sexual male characteristics according to genetic testing conducted by the International Boxing Association.
Video footage of Carini on her knees in the ring sobbing after having to abandon the fight while Khelif gives her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder summed up the atrocity of the event: Here was a young woman who had worked her entire life to compete at the highest level possible, only to have any opportunity of success stolen from her by a male with an undeniable physical advantage over her.
