Paris 2024 Olympics - Boxing - Women's 66kg - Prelims - Round of 16 - North Paris Arena, Villepinte, France - August 01, 2024. Angela Carini of Italy reacts after her fight against Imane Khelif of Algeria. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Angela Carini in Paris on Thursday and told the boxer to keep going in the sport after the welterweight abruptly quit her Olympic bout in a one-sided contest that sparked a gender row.
Carini lasted less than a minute in her fight after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.
"I know that you won't give up Angela, and I know that one day you will get what you deserve through strength and sweat. In a competition that is finally equal," Meloni wrote on X.
Meloni, who is attending the Games in Paris, posted a picture of herself consoling Carini.
The boxer told Italy's RAI TG1 news that Meloni had greeted her like a mother meeting a daughter and told her not to give up on her dreams.
"That gave me a lot of strength," she said.
(Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Alison Williams)
