Angela Carani is trending because she forfeited a boxing match in the Olypmic games against Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who failed at least two biological sex tests, which showed that Khelif has XY chromosomes.
XY chromosomes means that a person is male. Khelif has previously been banned from competing in women’s boxing by the International Boxing Association (IBA) because of this but the International Olympic Committee allowed Khelif into the women’s competition.
Carani took to the ring to face Khelif but abandoned the match after just 46 seconds. She said that she was hit so hard in the nose that she couldn’t breathe.
Khelif is not the only male person to be competing in women’s boxing. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting is also competing and has XY chromosomes.
The IBA released this statement about the IOC’s decisions to let these athletes compete with women after being previously banned in their events. They say that their decisions to ban these two from women’s events were “legally binding” and that they are concerned “over the inconsistent application of eligibility criteria by other sporting organizations, including those overseeing the Olympic Games. The IOC’s differing regulations on these matters, in which IBA is not involved, raise serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety.” They urge the “interested parties to seek answers directly from the IOC.”
