Donald Trump has weighed in on the Olympic boxing gender row, vowing to ‘keep men out of women’s sports’ amid backlash over Algerian fighter Imane Khelif’s brutal defeat of Italy’s Angela Carini on Thursday
Criticism has centered on the International Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to face off with Carini in the women’s 66kg preliminaries after the now-banished International Boxing Association claimed she failed gender eligibility tests in 2023.
Weighing in on the furor, former US President Trump shared a video of the fight and posted on social media: ‘I will keep men out of women’s sports.’
Conservatives have joined Trump in denouncing the IOC after a dejected Carini threw in the towel after just 46 seconds as Khelif landed two devastating punches in the opening seconds.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said yesterday: ‘It is a fact that with the levels of testosterone present in the blood of the Algerian athlete the race at the start does not seem fair,’ she said , adding she has opposed the IOC’s stance ‘for years’.
‘This, from my point of view, was not a competition on equal terms,’ she added.
The IBA disqualified Khelif from its world championships last year for failing gender eligibility requirements.
‘Based on the results of DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women,’ it said at the time.
‘Based on the results of the tests, it was proven that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from the competition.’
Khelif has never identified as male, transgender or intersex, according to TIME.
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