Aussie world champ lashes Italian boxer for ‘publicity stunt’ against Imane Khelif

Australian world champion Skye Nicolson has labelled the post-fight tears of Italian fighter Angela Carini a “publicity stunt”, leaping to the defence of the Algerian and Taiwanese boxers who have found themselves at the centre of a global storm at the Olympics.

Nicolson, the current holder of the WBC female featherweight title, competed at Tokyo 2020 before turning professional. In the lead-up to those Games, she lost twice to Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and says she has also fought against and sparred with Algerian Imane Khelif in the past.

Khelif (66kg) and Lin (57kg) are through to the quarter-finals of their respective weight divisions in women’s boxing at Paris 2024, but there is a huge debate over whether they should be there at all after it emerged that both fighters were declared ineligible for last year’s International Boxing Association world championships due to results from unspecified testing.

The saga has been sparked by Khelif’s round-of-16 victory over Carini, who dramatically pulled out of their bout after just 46 seconds, cried “it’s not right” in Italian, refused to shake hands with her opponent afterwards, and then told media she had feared for her safety.

Speaking on her Instagram story, Nicolson said she was initially reluctant to wade in on the matter, but said she felt compelled to use her platform to help Lin and Khelif combat what she suggested was pure misinformation in the media about their bodies and identities.

“I’ve actually fought and sparred both of the girls. They were born female. They were born with an XY chromosome, which is the male chromosome, but they were born with female bodies, they have the physical attributes of a female,” she said.

Skye Nicolson (right) fights Lucy Wildheart last year for the WBC featherweight title.Credit: Sportsfile via Getty Images

“They have grown up as girls, as females, as women. They have competed as women the whole time. These are not naturally born men who have decided to call themselves women or identify as women to fight women in the Olympics.

“And while it is a bit of a grey area, I think the abuse and the power of the media, and people just jumping on the bandwagon without knowing all the details, is honestly horrible.

“These girls have represented their country on numerous occasions for many, many years now as female fighters, and they do not deserve this mistreatment. I think they have been so unfortunate to even be in the situation that they’re in and to get all this scrutiny as well.”

Nicolson said that if it was so dangerous for women to be squaring off against Lin and Khelif, they would not have been routinely beaten by women throughout their careers and would be winning every event they entered.

Italy’s Angela Carini (left) was beaten by Algeria’s Imane Khelif.Credit: AP

“I feel like that says it all,” she said.

She also took aim at Carini, who has since offered Khelif an apology for her conduct and admitted she was merely “angry” because she had ended her run at the Olympics.

“I feel like the thing that happened with the Italian girl was a publicity stunt more than anything,” Nicolson said.

“I just think people really need to, like, look at the facts and stop jumping on the bandwagon. Be a lion, not a sheep.”

Another Aussie, Tina Rahimi, said she feared the speculation and discussion over Khelif and Lin’s participation at the Olympics could have implications on their mental health.

Rahimi, who competes in the same division as Lin but lost to Poland’s Julia Szeremeta on Friday, asked critics to remember that Khelif and Lin were human.

“I believe it takes a really massive toll on people’s mental health,” she added.

“Going into a major event like this, I think it’s really unnecessary unless there are proper facts to prove that is the case.”

Asked about athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women’s events, Rahimi said: “I don’t know where the evidence is for that. Obviously, men should be participating in men’s sport, and women should be participating in women’s sport.

“I think there’s just been a lot of talk, but there’s no proper evidence that has been provided. I feel like until there’s proper facts, people shouldn’t be really talking about it.”

With Reuters

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