WBO Conducting Gender Verification for Olympic Boxing Champion Khelif
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has enforced mandatory gender testing for boxers aged 18 and over, as part of a new guideline aimed at safeguarding athletes in combat sports. This decision follows a broader effort to create fair competition conditions for both men and women in the boxing world.
These new participation rules have been developed with the explicit goal of protecting athletes in combat sports, especially given the physical risks associated with Olympic boxing. The announcement was made in the context of the rising debates about athlete eligibility following the 2024 Paris Games.
Olympic champion Imane Khelif, who was at the center of a heated gender debate in Paris, has already felt the consequences of these new rules. World Boxing announced that Khelif will not be allowed to participate in the Eindhoven Box Cup (5-10 June) or any other World Boxing events until she undergoes a genetic gender test according to the rules and testing procedures of World Boxing.
In 2023, the IBA, which is no longer recognized by the IOC, had excluded both Khelif and Lin Yu-ting from the World Championships following unexplained gender tests. However, the IOC called it a "random decision without proper procedure" and allowed both athletes to participate in Paris. The gender indicated in the passport is decisive for many sports, the reasoning went. Both won gold.
World Boxing, recognized as a partner by the IOC Executive Board in February, is now establishing more specific rules. The organization of the boxing tournaments in 2024 in Paris and three years earlier in Tokyo had been taken over by the IOC after the IBA's suspension. In 2028 in Los Angeles, World Boxing would take over. The outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach had emphasized in Paris that they wanted to keep boxing in the Olympic program - but only with a reliable partner.
In the future, all athletes participating in an event organized by World Boxing will have to undergo a PCR genetic test to determine their birth gender and eligibility to compete. The test can be performed via nasal or oral swab, saliva, or blood. The IOC has also issued guidelines on gender identity and sex variations, emphasizing that athletes should be allowed to compete based on their self-determined gender identity without targeted sex testing. However, the specific mention of Imane Khelif is not found in the provided sources regarding these new testing rules.
Sports, including boxing, are now subject to strict eligibility rules enforced by organizations like World Boxing. Athletes participating in World Boxing events, as part of a wider effort to create fair competition conditions, will be required to undergo PCR genetic tests to determine their birth gender and eligibility.
