Paris 2024 Olympics - Boxing - Women's 66kg - Prelims - Round of 16 - North Paris Arena, Villepinte, France - August 01, 2024. Angela Carini of Italy in action against Imane Khelif of Algeria. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
PARIS (Reuters) -Italian boxer Angela Carini, who abandoned her welterweight round of 16 bout against Algeria's Imane Khelif after 46 seconds on Thursday, says she does not consider the bout as a defeat.
Carini's opponent Khelif has been in the spotlight for failing a gender eligibility test at the 2023 World Championships.
Khelif, a silver medallist at the 2022 World Championships, was disqualified hours before her gold medal bout at the worlds in New Delhi when she failed to meet the International Boxing Association's (IBA) eligibility criteria.
She was, however, ruled eligible to compete in the boxing competition at the Paris Olympics, which is being organised by the International Olympic Committee.
In Thursday's bout, Carini went to her coach after 30 seconds to fix her headgear but after briefly resuming the fight returned to her corner and stopped, quickly leaving the ring.
She later explained that she had decided not to fight after feeling intense pain in her nose.
"For me, it's not a defeat. For me, when you climb those ropes, you're already a warrior, you're already a winner," Carini said.
"Regardless of everything it's okay, fine like this. I didn't lose tonight ... I only did my job as a fighter. I got in the ring and I fought. I didn't make it. I'm coming out with my head held high and with a broken heart.
"I'm a mature woman. The ring is my life. I've always been very instinctive. And when I feel that something isn't right, it's not giving up. It's having the maturity to stop. It's having the maturity to say, 'OK, that's enough'."
Carini's bout with Khelif has been the topic of much discussion in Italy, with the nation's Family Minister Eugenia Roccella and Sports Minister Andrea Abodi voicing concern about the eligibility rules on Wednesday.
Asked if she felt burdened by the discourse, Carini said: "I didn't. For me, they weren't things that stopped me or blocked me mentally.
"I got in the ring and I said, 'I'm going to give it all I've got, regardless of the person in front of me, who doesn't interest me at this moment'.
"I had to give my best. So, with regard to all the controversies, I was never interested. I went in and I just wanted to win."
Italian boxing coach Emanuele Renzini said Carini had been given the option of backing out of the bout.
"I asked her, 'Angela, if you don't want to go up, let's not go'," Renzini said.
"But she told me no, 'this is my Olympics, I struggled to be here, I want to fight for my medal'. So she was very determined to do it.
"I supported her. I didn't imagine such an outcome. She never had any doubts, she wanted to fight."
(Reporting by Aadi Nair and Karolos Grohmann in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis)
