On the first of this month, Italian female boxer Angela Carini matched up against Algeria’s Imane Khelif, but the fight didn’t last long. After enduring two punches to the face, Carini left the Olympic women’s boxing match 46 seconds in, saying she had “never taken a punch like that.” She dejectedly collapsed in the ring and pronounced the fight “unjust.”
Khelif is one of two boxers in women’s boxing who is in the middle of a controversy involving failed eligibility requirements placed by the International Boxing Association. Last year, the IBA president told Russian news that the boxers had XY chromosomes based on a genetic test. While the IBA disqualified Khelif and the other boxer, the International Olympic Committee allowed them to compete, calling into question the IOC’s safety standards for women’s sports. For her part, Carini followed up by saying in the aftermath that her decision stemmed from having “the maturity to stop” and wished her opponent well in future matches.
In light of the firestorm of knee-jerk reactions, accusations, and name-calling that took place on social media once the story broke, it’s worth taking a beat and asking ourselves: Why are we having this impassioned debate in the first place?
Payton McNabb of North Carolina suffered a severe injury in September 2022 when, during a high school volleyball match, an opponent spiked the ball into her face, resulting in a concussion and neck injury that led to impaired vision, partial facial paralysis, headaches, anxiety, and depression — not to mention the hit knocked out some of her teeth. Because of
