Who is Imane Khelif and the row surrounding the Paris Olympic boxer

An Olympic boxing match between Algerian Imane Khelif and Italian Angela Carini has become one of the most controversial stories of the Paris games.

Carini abandoned her bout against Khelif after just 46 seconds on Thursday, saying she had “never felt a punch like this”. After taking a punch to the face in the women's round-of-16 welterweight bout, Carini refused to fight on and could be heard saying: "It's not right".

"It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well," Carini told the BBC afterward. Khelif was one of two fighters, along with Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, who are present at the Games in Paris having been disqualified from the World Championships last year by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.

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In the aftermath of Thursday's fight the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said “misleading information” had been reported about Khelif and Lin, and pointed out they had been competing in international boxing events for many years, including the Tokyo Games three years ago.

It described the IBA’s decision to disqualify them last year as “sudden” and “arbitrary” and having been made “without due process”.

But just who is Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and how has this row developed?

Khelif, 25, has been boxing since she was a child in Algeria, WalesOnline reports. Khelif's father did not allow her to take part in sports when she was younger because "he did not approve of girls boxing",

She finished 17th at the 2018 World Championships and 19th in the 2019 Women's World Boxing Championships. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which took