October 01, 2024 09:47 AM UTC

Italian Boxer Declines Boebert's Bigot Bucks

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• by: Colorado Pols

During the Summer Olympic Games in Paris last August, as readers will remember, a controversy erupted over a female Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was dubiously accused of being male on her way to winning the gold medal in her weight classification. Khelif’s bout against Italian boxer Angela Carini ended early after Carini stopped the match, giving rise to bogus speculation that Carini had withdrawn because she was afraid of “fighting a man.” Afterward, Carini defended Khelif and made clear that she didn’t question Khelif’s qualifications to compete.

Leaping face-first into the controversy was Colorado’s Rep. Lauren Boebert, who immediately launched a fundraising page to raise the equivalent of what Italy pays gold medal winners for Carini. When we checked in August the page had raised about $60,000 toward the goal. Boebert’s fundraising effort succeeded in its goal of attaching Boebert’s brand to the worldwide story, and she made the rounds on conservative media promoting herself along with the campaign:

“It’s really unfortunate when women who have competed since they were little girls, trained since they were little girls, are forced to compete against a mediocre male athlete,” Boebert said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “I believe that Angela deserves better. She worked her entire life to reach the very top of her sport, and my heart goes out to her today. It was really devastating.”

Because Angela Carini was already working to defuse the controversy while Boebert was in the process of fanning the flames, we speculated in August that Carini might not be interested in Boebert’s money due to the prejudicial pretenses it was raised under. And sure enough, Colorado Public Radio’s Caitlyn Kim Tweeted yesterday:

To be clear once again, the allegation that Imane possesses “XY chromosomes” has never been verified, and is based on the word of a discredited Russian sports authority that had no jurisdiction over the Olympics. That means Boebert literally based this whole campaign on Russian propaganda. And make no mistake, Angela Carini turned down tens of thousands of dollars of free money because the manner in which it was raised was unconscionable. If Carini truly “appreciated the support” from people who only paid attention to her story due to bigoted misinformation, she would have taken the money. But Carini couldn’t do that, and it’s commendable.

As for Lauren Boebert, this cheap ploy to glom onto a controversy that didn’t age well is another humiliation to sweep under her lumpiest of rugs.