Algerian boxer Imane Khelif met with transphobic abuse after 46-second win at Paris Olympics

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's 46-second win at the Paris Olympics on Thursday sparked a row about gender eligibility rules. Italian boxer Angela Carini retired hurt and shrugged off attempts by Khelif to shake her hand, before collapsing to her knees and sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the ring. Khelif advanced to the quarter-finals of the women's 66kg category after unloading two strong punches to the face of Carini, who had blood on her shorts and was unable to carry on because of a badly hurt nose.

Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who fights today at 57kg, were disqualified from the 2023 world championships in New Delhi run by the International Boxing Association (IBA) but deemed eligible to box in the women's competition in Paris. Both boxers also competed at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. The IBA said Lin and Khelif were disqualified from the world championships as "a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women's competition".

The International Olympic Committee is running the boxing contest in the French capital because of governance, financial and ethical issues at the IBA. In a press conference after Khelif's match, IOC spokesman Mark Adams suggested the row was due to confusion that this was a transgender issue - when it's not. He made it clear to reporters at Imane Khelif was born female, lived her life as female and identifies as such, and has female on her passport.

But this did not stop public figures from around the world weighing in on the controversy. Donald Trump declared on his Truth Social network: "I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN'S SPORTS!" Harry Potter author JK Rowling said on X that the Paris Games would be "forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini". Also on social media, tennis great Martina Navratilova described the situation as "deplorable", alleging that Khelif was a "biological man". Reem Alsalem, the UN 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".