ATLANTA — A woman’s Olympic boxing match has enraged several U.S. GOP lawmakers who say one of the competitors was actually a man.
Imane Khelif of Algeria won her opening match when opponent Angela Carini of Italy quit after just 46 seconds.
Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her presence at the Paris Olympics has become a divisive issue.
Carini and Khelif exchanged only a few punches before Carini walked away and abandoned the match, an extremely unusual occurrence in Olympic boxing.
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Afterward, Carini said she quit because of intense pain in her nose, and that she wasn’t making a political statement and was not refusing to fight Khelif.
“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.
But that didn’t stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from taking to X, formerly known as twitter, to speak her mind about the match.
“A real women, Angela Carini, who trained for years to box at the Olympics is “defeated” by a real man pretending to be a woman. HE is a fraud, an imposter, and a liar. Shame on EVERYONE who allows men to compete against women. Democrats support this,” Greene posted.
A real women, Angela Carini, who trained for years to box at the Olympics is “defeated” by a real man pretending to be a woman.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) August 1, 2024
HE is a fraud, an imposter, and a liar.
Shame on EVERYONE who allows men to compete against women.
Democrats support this.
pic.twitter.com/N2mg97DETt
According to Politico, Khelif is not transgender and was born female. The news agency reported that the reason she was previously banned from competing is because “her body produces high levels of testosterone.”
The Algerian Olympic committee issued a statement Wednesday about Khelif condemning what it said were “lies” about her gender identity and slammed the allegations as “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”
Though Khelif is not transgender, Greene alluded to as much in her post and has been an outspoken critic of the trans community.
In her speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this month, Greene went after Democrats who celebrated Transgender Visibility Day, which happened to land on Easter this year.
“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday. And let me state this clearly, there are only two genders. And we’re made in God’s image. And we won’t shy away from speaking that simple truth ever,” Greene said.
She even took aim at the Olympic opening ceremony.
“The French Olympic Committee has been hard at work taking down videos of their satanic, trans, and occult opening ceremonies claiming copyright laws. It’s our First Amendment right to share these videos and our outright outrage over the anti-Christian Olympic opening ceremonies,” she posted on X.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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