Paris Olympics: after Cheung, Italy’s authorities target Imane Khelif as boxer quits fight
- Cheung Ka-long’s dramatic fencing victory over Filippo Macchi led to a bitter reaction in Italy
Following on from their formal complaint over Cheung Ka-long’s gold medal, Italy’s authorities have focused their ire on another rival: boxer Imane Khelif.
Cheung’s dramatic fencing victory over Filippo Macchi led to a bitter reaction in Italy. As well as lodging a complaint, the president of the country’s Olympic committee was unhappy with referees hailing from South Korea and Chinese Taipei, because of their geographical closeness with Hong Kong.
And, now their anger has turned to another athlete who beat one of their competitors. Algerian boxer Khelif has been beset by trans allegations because of her high testosterone levels, despite images on social media showing her as a girl in her youth.
Italy’s Angela Carini quit after 45 seconds of her bout with Khelif and could be heard telling her corner: “She really hurt me, I don’t want to carry on.”
During the victory announcement, Carini was repeating: “It’s not right.”
After the result, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who was returning from a recent visit to China, expressed her displeasure at the outcome.