PARIS – Five French female boxers will miss the world championship that begins this Thursday in England due to complications with the new gender tests, mandatory after the controversy generated in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The French team expressed “astonishment and indignation” at not being able to have their boxers compete after failing to meet the deadline for obtaining the test results from England. These tests are prohibited in France under these sporting circumstances, due to a law that protects the privacy of women. World Boxing announced its mandatory testing policy on May 30, in response to last year’s controversy in Paris, where Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won gold medals amid a campaign questioning their eligibility. Boxers must undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or an equivalent genetic screening test to determine their sex at birth. The new boxing governing body, which was not involved in the Paris Olympics, although provisionally recognized by the IOC in February, suggested that the French federation is responsible for failing to meet the deadline before the world championship in Liverpool.
World Boxing also stated that the organization has made it clear that testing will be the responsibility of national federations, as they have the closest links and the greatest access to their boxers and are best suited to manage the testing process. The French boxing federation announced that they were informed that they would wait for the results “within 24 hours and that, therefore, we could, without fail, present them when registering our female boxers”. The five excluded boxers are Romane Moulai, Wassila Lkhadiri, Melissa Bounoua, Sthélyne Grosy and Maëlys Richol.Richol shared on his Instagram page a message from Estelle Mossely, former candidate to lead the French boxing federation, asking for the resignation of the responsible officials. Khelif will also not compete in Liverpool after failing to obtain an urgent provisional ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in his wider appeal against World Boxing’s testing mandate.It is very disappointing for female boxers that some national federations have not been able to complete this process on time.
World Boxing
