The 2024 Paris Olympics are over, but the Imane Khelif case is not yet over. After the gold medal won by the Algerian boxer, the International Boxing Federation (IBA) has released a press release in which he accuses the president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Giovanni Malagò of having “lied publicly”.
The note is accompanied by the text of an email – complete with screenshot – that the Italian Boxing Federation (FPI) sent to the IBA on July 31, on the eve of the round of 16 match at the Paris Games between Khelif and Italian Angela Carini, a match that saw the Italian retire after just 46 seconds.
In the email, the FPI asks the International Federation to “know the test on the basis of which the Algerian boxer was disqualified from the final of the IBA Women’s World Championship in New Delhi after failing to pass the eligibility rules”.
The Iba does not clarify whether and how it responded to the request from Italy, but claims that this message demonstrates how the pressure on Carini was put on by his own Federation, and not by the Iba as Malagò had instead claimed in recent days.
“Angela showed me the pressure she was subjected to in the days preceding the meeting by the Iba,” the president of Coni had said in an interview with the newspaper The Press. A version that the Iba claims to have refuted in this way.
“Malagò – reads the statement from the International Federation – allowed himself to lie publicly in the media accusing the IBA of putting pressure on their athlete. In reality, the pressure fell on the IBA when the Italian side started the campaign against their opponent”.
“Although the news of Khelif and Lin’s ineligibility (Lin Yu Ting, a Taiwanese boxer who finds herself in a similar situation to the Algerian, ed.) had been made public by the media before the meeting on August 1st, it was widely reported by the media around the world immediately after Carini’s performance”, the IBA underlines.
The International Boxing Federation assures that it “had no intention of raising an issue that was decisive for us a year ago and which ended with the disqualification of both boxers”.
“The IOC – insists the IBA – was informed in writing of the development, but chose to ignore the matter”: according to the boxing federation, the eligibility criteria for the International Olympic Committee competitions “are based on passport and not on gender”, a circumstance that leads the IBA to be “seriously concerned about the safety and well-being of our boxers”.
It is worth remembering that last year the Federation – chaired by the pro-Putin Russian Umar Kremlev – saw its recognition revoked by the IOC because it did not meet the requirements of good governance, transparency and sporting integrity.
As is known, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting were excluded from the World Championships organized last year by the Iba in India because they were deemed unfit to compete with female boxers. The Federation has never detailed, for privacy reasons, the reasons for the exclusion but during the Paris Olympics it released a note in which it denied that the two had been subjected to tests on testosterone levels in their blood.
In a statement published on its website after Khelif won gold, the IBA “stresses that competing against unfit athletes is dangerous and unfair to female boxers.”
“It is a shame – concludes the Federation – that the IOC neglects the safety of women boxers to criticize the IBA at all costs, just out of spite. Now, after Khelif won the final of the Paris Olympics, the IBA can only regret that one of our boxers was deprived of the opportunity to celebrate gold tonight”.
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