Khelif, an Algerian, was disqualified from last year’s world championships for failing gender-eligibility tests.
The 25-year-old from Naples stopped fighting seconds into round of 16 women’s welterweight contest, saying the first punch she suffered hurt too much and it was clear she was outpowered.
The IOC has used a different set of rules for admission to the Paris 2024 tournament than those for the women’s boxing world championships.
Meloni said Thursday that the Carini-Khelif match was not a fair fight, and women should not have to compete against opponents with “male genetic characteristics”.
Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Giovanni Malagò also took part in the meeting at the hotel where Meloni is staying in Paris, according to the sources.
The topics of the meeting also included the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics and international politics, the sources said.
After the meeting, Bach told a press conference he never had any doubt that Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, the other athlete caught up in the controversy, are women.
“We have two boxers who were born women, who grew up as women, who have passports as women and who have competed as women for years,” said Bach.
“This is a clear definition of a woman.
“What we are seeing now is that some want to take possession of the definition of woman.
“I urge these people to provide us with a scientific definition of what it means to be a woman.
“But we won’t contribute to political debates, and inciting hatred on social media is unacceptable,” said Boch.
ANSA
