French Boxers Out of World Cup Due to Gender Tests
Paris – Five French female boxers will miss the world championship starting Thursday in England due to complications with the new mandatory gender tests, implemented after the controversy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The French team expressed “astonishment and indignation” at the impossibility of their female boxers to compete, after failing to meet the deadline to obtain the results of the tests carried out in 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 questions about 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 and was provisionally recognized by the IOC in February, suggested that the French federation is responsible for failing to meet the deadline for the world championships in Liverpool.The organization has made it clear that testing will be the responsibility of the national federations, as they have the closest links and greatest access to their boxers, and are in the best position to manage the testing process. The French boxing federation stated that it was told to wait for the results “within 24 hours and that, therefore, we could present them without fail 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 stated on Thursday in a statement.
World Boxing
