Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s 46-second victory at the Paris Olympics has ignited a heated debate over gender eligibility rules with global public figures and sporting bodies weighing in.

Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned the match against Khelif on Thursday, walking away from the contest to her corner – an extremely rare scene in Olympic boxing.

Carini did not shake Khelif’s hand after the referee formally raised it. She cried in the ring, sinking to her knees. Minutes later, still-tearful, Carini said she quit because of the pain from opening punches.

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough’ because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said.

Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. Her participation in the Paris Olympics has become a divisive issue.

Author JK Rowling referred to her as a “male”, accusing her of “enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered”.

The writer has incurred the wrath of human rights activists in recent years over her stance, often in relation to transgender issues, that biological sex is immutable.

On Truth Social, United States presidential candidate Donald Trump declared in capital letters, “I will keep men out of women’s sports” while his vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance, argued that “Kamala Harris’s ideas about gender” have led “to a grown man pummelling a woman in a boxing match”.

Reem Alsalem, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, wrote on X that Carini “and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex”.

People would rather spread misinformation instead of simply doing cursory research. The way these grifters and concern trolls are acting, you’d think Imane Khelif was just Mike Tysoning dainty women left and right.

She has NINE losses. She was in the last Olympics and didn’t win… pic.twitter.com/iPvPpzt5CG

— Ibou, of WrestlePurists (@BackupHangman) August 1, 2024

Algerian officials and others sympathised with Khelif as she was targeted online.

Algeria’s Olympic Committee (COA) condemned what it called “malicious and unethical attacks directed against our distinguished athlete, Imane Khelif, by certain foreign media”.

Nadia Whittome, a British politician, posted on X: “Imane Khelif was assigned female at birth. She’s spoken about being initially banned from boxing by her dad who said it wasn’t for girls. The attacks on her show that transphobia doesn’t only hurt trans people, but also other women who don’t fit conventional ideas of femininity.”

‘Misleading information’

After years of competing in amateur tournaments, Khelif is suddenly bring scrutinised for her presence in Paris along with Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.

Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body withdrew her bronze medal last year because it said she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined that both athletes are eligible to compete in the 2024 Paris Games and released a statement saying that “as with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.”

“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the statement said, adding that the athletes were victims of a “sudden and arbitrary” decision by the IBA.

Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te gave the 28-year-old Lin his public backing, saying on Facebook, “We should stand united and cheer for her.”

Carini said she was not making a political statement or refusing to fight Khelif.

Later, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited Carini, consoling the boxer in a photo shared on Meloni’s Instagram page.

“I know you won’t give up, Angela,” Meloni wrote, “and I know one day you will win what you deserve with effort and sweat. In a competition that is finally equal.”

Khelif was given a huge roar when she came into the North Paris Arena, partly from members of the large Algerian diaspora in the French capital.

Khelif stopped only briefly to talk to reporters afterwards, saying: “It’s always satisfying to win in such an important competition, but I remain focused on my goal of a medal.”