VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — The Italian Boxing Federation said it would not accept any prize money from the banned International Boxing Association.
IBA president Umar Kremlev had announced in a video that his organization wanted to give a $50,000 prize to Angela Carini, who tearfully quit her opening bout with Imane Khelif of Algeria at the Paris Olympics after just 46 seconds. Kremlev also said he intended to award $25,000 to Italy’s national federation and $25,000 to Carini’s coach after her dramatic opening-round exit against Khelif.
Regarding Kremlev’s offer, the Italian Boxing Federation released a statement Saturday saying it “denies what has been reported by some media regarding the hypothesis of accepting any kind of cash prize.”
The Italian federation didn’t say whether Carini or her coach planned to accept the money.
The Italian Boxing Federation is not a member of the IBA, nor are nearly any of the most prominent Western amateur boxing federations. Roughly three dozen federations have left the IBA in the past two years to form World Boxing, a new governing body hoping to take the IBA’s place in the next Olympic cycle.
Kremlev has released a series of incendiary criticisms of the International Olympic Committee, which suspended his organization’s Olympic recognition before the Tokyo Games and completely banished the body from the Olympic movement last year.
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.
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.
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