The decision follows a controversial episode earlier this year involving Algeria’s Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif, who withdrew from a World Boxing tournament in the Netherlands after the organisation initially announced plans for sex verification testing
Imane Khelif (Pic: AFP)
World Boxing has confirmed that all female competitors at its upcoming World Championships in Liverpool will be required to undergo sex testing. The policy, announced on Wednesday, mandates a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or an equivalent genetic screening to determine athletes' sex at birth.
The new regulation is set to take effect ahead of the tournament in early September and has sparked renewed debate on gender verification in sport.
“World Boxing respects the dignity of all individuals and is keen to ensure it is as inclusive as possible,” said Boris Van Der Vorst, president of World Boxing, reported news agency AP. “Yet in a combat sport like boxing, we have a duty of care to deliver safety and competitiveness fairness, which are the key principles that have guided the development and creation of this policy.”
The decision follows a controversial episode earlier this year involving Algeria’s Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif, who withdrew from a World Boxing tournament in the Netherlands after the organisation initially announced plans for sex verification testing. Van Der Vorst later issued an apology for publicly naming Khelif during discussions of the proposed policy.
Khelif, 26, and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, another gold medallist from the Paris Olympics, have been subject to scrutiny and speculation regarding their eligibility to compete in women’s events. Khelif has consistently affirmed that she was born female and has competed in women's amateur boxing at the highest level for nearly a decade.
Sex testing, specifically chromosome testing, was previously used in Olympic sport but was largely abandoned in the 1990s due to its inability to account for athletes with differences in sex development (DSD). These conditions often lead to ambiguous results that complicate the binary classification of male and female athletes.
Under the new guidelines, World Boxing has stated that athletes with DSD resulting in male androgenisation will only be eligible to compete in the men’s category. However, it also acknowledged that further evaluation could be available for athletes with Y chromosome material seeking to compete in women’s divisions. This would include hormonal profiling, anatomical assessments, and endocrinological evaluations by medical experts. An appeals process will also be in place.
National federations will be responsible for conducting the tests and submitting results ahead of the event.
This move follows a broader trend in international sport. Earlier this year, World Athletics became the first Olympic governing body to reintroduce chromosome testing, setting a deadline of September 1 for compliance ahead of its own world championships.
(With AP inputs)
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