A number of women have been barred from competing in the amateur World Boxing Championship this year after missing the deadline for gender tests.
New rules in the sport mean there is strict gender testing involved for athletes in the fallout of the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The tournament, which is taking place in Liverpool, started on Thursday but saw a number of fighters, including five from France, miss the deadline.
The tests that are now in place have been banned in France since 1994. As a result, French female fighters at the Championship were unable to test before arriving in England.
A number of athletes missed the deadline for testing, imposed by World Boxing. Five French fighters came up short, but others are understood to have fallen foul of the rules too.
The French Boxing Federation, meanwhile, have been left livid with the outcome and released a lengthy statement when learning of the outcome.
The World Boxing Championship has been rocked by missed gender tests in the fallout of controversy surrounding Imane Khelif
Five female French fighters have been barred from competing because they missed the deadline for gender testing
It read: ‘It is with stupefaction and indignation that the French team learned on Wednesday evening the French women’s boxing team would not be able to compete in the first World Championships organised by World Boxing.
‘Despite guarantees given to us by World Boxing, the laboratory which they recommended to us was not up to the task of delivering the results on time.
‘As a result our athletes as well as those from other countries have been caught in this trap and excluded.’
Maelys Richol, one of the athletes barred from competing, said: ‘After an entire year of work we find ourselves thrown out not for sporting reasons but because of disastrous and unfair management.
‘It is extremely tough to absorb.’
The fault, though, according to World Boxing is at the feet of the federations. In their own statement, the organisation wrote: ‘Since World Boxing first announced its plan to introduce mandatory sex testing to determine the chromosomal sex of a male or female at birth, the organisation has made it clear that testing will be the responsibility of the national federations, as they have the closest links and most access to their boxes and are best placed to manage the testing process.
‘They also oversee the entree process for boxers, so know which boxers need to be tested and when.
‘It is very disappointing for the boxers that some of the national federations have not been able to complete this process in time, which means that some athletes have not made it through the entry process for the World Boxing Championship.’
Testing was introduced after Khalif’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics but is banned in France
A World Boxing official added: ‘We are sorry some boxers did not meet the deadline for results of testing but the rules and deadlines were published.’
Khelif, meanwhile, has taken her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in a bid to overturn the ban, and wants to be permitted to box without being tested.
In June, World Boxing unveiled a new policy of mandatory sex testing. Bosses were forced to apologise after naming Khelif, who won welterweight gold, in the announcement.
Khelif, from Algeria, filed the appeal earlier this month, and is seeking for a reversal of World Boxing’s decision that stated she ‘was not allowed to participate in the Box Cup in Eindhoven, nor in any World Boxing event until she had undergone genetic sex testing’.
Earlier this week, however, CAS dismissed a request to suspend the execution of World Boxing’s decision until the case is heard and, as such, Khelif remains banned. Parties are currently exchanging written submissions with a hearing to be scheduled.
Khelif, along with Taiwan fighter Lin Yu-ting, was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by previous governing body the International Boxing Association. Both were alleged to have failed gender tests.
The pair were, however, cleared to box in Paris by the International Olympic Committee, which stripped the IBA of its status as governing body over concerns of corruption. Both boxers would go on to win gold in the female category.
The IOC said boxers were eligible for the women’s division simply if their passports stated that they were female.
