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World Boxing, the international governing body for the sport of boxing, announced a new policy on Wednesday that introduces mandatory sex testing to ensure only females compete in the women’s category.
The change came a year after the world watched Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, two boxers who previously failed sex tests, win women’s Olympic boxing gold medals in Paris.
The Khelif and Yu-ting’s gold medal runs prompted global backlash and controversy amid rising concerns over males competing in women’s sports. Now, World Boxing has introduced a policy that will effectively prevent similar incidents from occurring at future events.
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Imane Khelif from Algeria and Luca Anna Hamori from Hungary fight each other. (Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“World Boxing respects the dignity of all individuals and is keen to ensure it is as inclusive as possible, 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,” World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst said in an announcement.
“It has been a long and detailed process, but it was vital that we examined all of the medical, legal and sporting issues raised by this issue and I am confident that in introducing testing to certify the eligibility of an athlete to compete as a male or female, the new policy on ‘Sex Age and Weight’ will deliver sporting integrity and protect the safety of all participants.
“We recognize that the issues relating to eligibility in boxing are more pronounced in the women’s events which is why we have made the decision to implement the policy in the female category first, where it will apply for the forthcoming World Boxing Championships and this was communicated to all of our member National Federations some time ago, to enable them to begin the process of testing.
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Imane Khelif of Team Algeria looks on against Anna Luca Hamori of Team Hungary during the Women’s 66kg Quarter-final round match on day eight of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at North Paris Arena on Aug. 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 entering them into competitions, via PCR or functional medical equivalent genetic screening test.
The national teams must now provide certification of their chromosomal sex and failure to provide it will render the athlete ineligible to compete and could even lead to sanctions against the athlete and national team.
The mandatory testing will go into affect just in time for the 2025 World Boxing championships in Liverpool starting Sept. 4.
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Lin Yu-ting looks on prior to the Women’s 57kg Semifinal match against Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Team Turkey on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Roland Garros on Aug, 07, 2024 in Paris, France. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
In a May letter to Khelif’s national team, the Algerian Boxing Federation, World Boxing announced that it would adopt mandatory sex testing and that Khelif would need to pass one in order to compete in the Eindhoven Box Cup in June.
Khelif ended up skipping the tournament.
President Donald Trump said that there will be a “strong form of testing” when asked about potential genetic testing for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics at a press conference on Aug. 5.
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