NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
World Boxing, the international governing body of boxing, announced on Wednesday a new policy introducing mandatory sex tests to ensure that only women compete in the women’s category.
The change came a year after the world saw Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting, two boxers who previously failed sex experiments, won women’s Olympic boxing medals in Paris.
Khelif and Yu-Ting’s gold medal runs led to global setbacks and controversy in the midst of rising concerns about men competing in women’s sports. Now, World Boxing has introduced a policy that will effectively prevent similar events from occurring in future events.
Imane Khelif from Algeria and Luca Anna Hamori from Hungary fighting each other. (Sina Schuldt/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
“World Boxing respects the dignity of all individuals and is eager to ensure that it is as inclusive as possible, yet in a martial arts as boxing, we have a duty to provide security and competitiveness of justice, which are the most important principles that have led the development and establishment of this policy,” said the President of the World Boris van der in a message.
“It has been a long and detailed process, but it was important that we examine all the medical, legal and sporting problems raised by this issue, and I am convinced that by introducing tests to certify an athlete’s justification to compete as a man or woman, the new policy of ‘sex age and weight’ will deliver sporting integrity and protect the safety of all participants.
“We recognize that the questions relating to eligibility in boxing are more pronounced in women’s events, which is why we first made the decision to implement the politics of the female category, where it will apply for the World Box Championships, and this was communicated to all our members of the National Federations a while ago to allow them to begin the process of testing.
The former Upenn -Swimmer reflects on being teammates with Lia Thomas
Imane Khelif of Team Algeria looks at Anna Luca Hamori from Team Hungary during the women’s 66 kg quarter-final round match on day eight of the Paris Olympic Games 2024 in North Paris Arena on August 33, 2024 in Paris, France. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
The new policy stated that national teams will be responsible for testing and confirming the biological sex of their athletes when participating in competitions, via PCR or functional medically equivalent genetic screening tests.
The national teams must now provide certification of their chromosomal gender, and failure to supply it will make the athlete unjustified to compete and could even lead to sanctions on the athlete and the national team.
The mandatory test will go into influence just in time for the 2025 World Boxing Championships in Liverpool from September 4th.
Lin Yu-Ting looks at before the women’s 57 kg semi-final match against Esra Yildiz Kahraman from Team Turkey on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Roland Garros on August, 07, 2024 in Paris, France. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
In a May letter to Khelif’s national team, the Algerian Boxing Association, World Boxing announced that it would adopt compulsory sex tests and that Khelif should pass one to compete in the Eindhoven Box Cup in June.
Khelif ended up skipping the tournament.
President Donald Trump said there will be a “strong form of testing” when asked about potential genetic testing for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics at a press conference on August 5th.
