Discussions around Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's gender flooded social media platforms soon after she defeated her Italian opponent Angela Carini during her opening bout at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 1. An X post from someone claiming to be Carini has begun to garner attention online, with the user claiming the boxer was "cheated" out of a medal at the Paris Olympics. This is an impostor account — the real Carini did not write this. The account has only published in English, but Carini writes mostly in Italian in her verified social media, and the X account had previously been posting under a different user name.
An account on X, formerly Twitter, with the username @AngelaCariniBox, , "I was cheated out of a metal (sic) at the Olympics. I appreciate all the support and love from everyone and I will always respect my competitors. But I can't respect a male competitors (sic) I'm forced to compete against. Simply not fair." The account name is "Angela Carini" followed by an emoji of a black circle with a "7" in it.
The post received more than 153,000 impressions as of Aug. 8.While some X users called it a many fell for the post and reposted at least 4,700 times.
About three hours later, the same user tweeted their endorsement for former U.S. president Donald Trump. The : "I’ve received so much support world wide from everyone but more specifically Americans!!! Americans are the best I’m officially endorsing Donald J. Trump."
Rating: Fake account
Carini and Khelif were competing in the women's 66 kilogram boxing round of 16 on Aug. 1. The match lasted 46 seconds from her Algerian opponent, abandoning her bout. Carini didn't shake Khelif's hand and cried in the ring after sinking to her knees.
The Aug. 1 boxing match determined which athlete would move on to the quarterfinals and was not for a medal.
The was created in July and has more than 2,100 followers as of publication. on the feed goes back to July 28, endorsing former U.S. president Donald Trump for the coming presidential elections in the United States. The account has made several posts about endorsing Trump.
All the posts have been made in English. Carini, who has a verified social media presence on Meta's and , primarily posts in her native language, Italian.
The X account gave no indication that it was run by someone other than Carini until Aug. 7, when "" was added to its bio, which identified the user as "Angela Carini | Italian Boxer | Passionate about the sweet science of boxing | Representing Italy on the world stage."
The X user was possibly impersonating George Clooney before Carini under the username @GeorgeClooey, which misspells the Hollywood actor's name. A search in X of that username brings up a to @AngelaCariniBox's .
It is not clear when the user adopted Carini's fake profile. On Aug. 1, however, the user started commenting on posts of other with a note, "Thanks for showing me love and support. I made a tweet about the situation. Please do checkout my tweet and share it."
On Aug. 11, the fake Carini profile changed the to: "Thanks for following me. Just followed you back. Love what you post and we have to do what we can to get Trump back in office. I have a favor. Can you please go to @angelacarinibox twitter and retweet her tweet. Her tweet can also be found on my page. Why did she fight a man?"
The copy-paste comments were left on and were made at least 16 times. The user also promoted a , posting about the boxing match and endorsement for Trump.
X has added a reader's , saying: "This is not Angela Carini's account. It is an impersonator, which goes against X's rules."
The context box links to another account the note-writer claims is , @Angelacarini98, which was created in August 2017 and has zero posts. ϳԹ has not been able to verify this is Carini's account.
ϳԹ reached out to Carini but did not hear back at the time of the publication.
Other fake accounts
The X account posing as Carini has interacted with and shared posts from several accounts that also appear to be fake.
An account posing as Donald Trump has the same "7" emoji in its account name and whose username, , also uses a misspelling of the former president's official X account, . Both accounts have shared each other's posts and the Trump account has promoted the Carini account in to other users.
The fake Carini account has from an account appearing to impersonate Algerian boxer Khelif, who posted, in English, on Aug. 4 about being, "the best female boxer."
The user joined X in April 2024 and appears to have previously tried impersonating an Arizona rancher whose trial in the fatal shooting of a Mexican man on his property ended in July with a deadlocked jury.
The profile, currently named @Imaneekhelif – a misspelling of Khelif's given name – was previously responding to Kelly-related tweets, , "Thanks for covering me."
On Aug. 7, the account impersonating Carini that they were suing Khelif for "emotional trauma." There are no official reports of any lawsuit connected with the Olympic bout and Carini has since apologized for her reaction to the match.
“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said, The Associated Press “Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again I would embrace her.”
Carini said she had quit the match because of the pain from Khelif's opening punches.
Sources
Posts from the fake Angela Carini X account can be found (), (), (), (), (), () and(), and from when the account had @georgeclooey as its username ()
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Posts from the fake Imane Khelif account can be found (), and from when the user was responding to posts about George Alan Kelly () and ()
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