The Paris Summer Olympics boxing match between Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Italy’s Angela Carini came to an early and unexpected end when Carini bowed out after being hit. Just 46 seconds

into her Thursday, Aug. 1 match against Khelif, 25-year-old Carini exited the ring, according to the Associated Press and Reuters. It happened after Carini exchanged punches with the

Algerian boxer and then burst into tears and fell to her knees. Carini, visibly upset and dealing with her headgear being dislodged during the short fight, didn’t shake Khelif’s hand after

the winner had been announced, the outlet reported. Per the AP, Khelif was disqualified during the 2023 boxing world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. The

INTEREST STORIES. Following Khelif being declared the winner, Carini spoke after the match and said that her reasoning for quitting the fight was due to the extreme pain she felt in her nose

after being hit by Khelif in the opening seconds of the fight. “I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want

to, I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said, per the AP and Reuters. Carini further added that she was not refusing to continue to fight Khelif based on gender issues nor was she making a

political statement by bowing out. Speaking on whether Khelif should be allowed to fight, Carini said: “I am not here to judge or pass judgment. If an athlete is this way, and in that sense

it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not

having finished the last kilometer.” Per the AP, on Wednesday, July 31, the Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement condemning what it said were “lies” about Khelif's gender

identity and slammed the allegations as “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.” Due to backlash and intense

criticism, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended the Khelif’s right to compete at the Games, as Olympic boxing reached gender parity for the first time with an equal number of

men and women competing, the AP reported.  Hours following the win, Khelif reacted on Instagram. "Elhamdolilah 🤲☝️first Victory," the boxer posted. THE PEOPLE PUZZLER CROSSWORD IS

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