By GREG BEACHAM
VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — The banned International Boxing Association wants to give a $50,000 prize to Italy boxer Angela Carini, who tearfully quit her opening bout with Imane Khelif of Algeria at the Paris Olympics after just 46 seconds.
IBA president Umar Kremlev made the announcement in his latest video in a series of incendiary criticisms of the International Olympic Committee, which suspended his organization’s Olympic recognition before the Tokyo Games and banished the body from the Olympic movement entirely last year.
Kremlev also said he intends to award $25,000 to Italy’s national federation and $25,000 to Carini’s coach after her dramatic opening-round exit against Khelif. The IBA claims Khelif failed an unspecified gender identity test last year at its world championships, and it has stoked a worldwide uproar over the presence of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan in the Olympic women’s boxing tournament.
“I couldn’t look at her tears,” Kremlev said of Carini. “I am not indifferent to such situations, and I can assure that we will protect each boxer. I do not understand why they kill women’s boxing. Only eligible athletes should compete in the ring for the sake of safety.”
The IOC repeatedly has said Khelif and Lin meet the requirements for Olympic eligibility. Both boxers competed in IBA tournaments for years before their abrupt disqualification last year in New Delhi.
The IBA announced plans last month to give $3.1 million in prize money to the medal winners in Paris — even though the IBA has nothing to do with Olympic boxing anymore. The IOC and the IBA have clashed for years over the IOC’s concerns about the IBA’s governance, financial transparency and fairness.
It’s unclear whether Carini and the Italian Boxing Association would accept the IBA’s money — or even which Italian federation the IBA hopes to reward, because it didn’t specify in its news release.
Italy’s official national federation last month joined World Boxing, the breakaway governing body attempting to keep boxing in the Olympics. World Boxing has 37 members, and it hopes to add many more before the IOC’s deadline early next year for the sport to line up behind a new governing body to keep its place on the Olympic program.
The IBA lists a different Italian national federation — the Federacione Pugilistica Italiana — among its members on its website. Many nations have multiple amateur boxing federations.
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
