Boxer wins gold at the Olympics: Khelif misses tournament after introduction of gender tests

At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is causing heated debate. She wins gold and is the target of attacks from conservative circles. She is accused of being a man. Now she is being banned from a tournament. The reason is a new rule from World Boxing.

Just days after World Boxing introduced mandatory gender testing, Olympic champion Imane Khelif will not participate in a tournament in the Netherlands. Dirk Renders, spokesperson for the Eindhoven Box Cup, confirmed this to the AFP news agency on Thursday. "The decision regarding her exclusion rests with World Boxing," Renders said.

At the end of May, the new world amateur boxing federation, recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since March, introduced gender testing to assess the suitability of male and female athletes for its competitions. The participation of Algerian boxer Khelif at the Olympic Games had sparked heated debate. Ahead of the event in the Netherlands, World Boxing informed the Algerian federation that Khelif would have to undergo the test if she wanted to participate in the tournament in Eindhoven (until June 10).

The proposed PCR test is a laboratory procedure for detecting specific genetic material, in this case the SRY gene. This indicates the presence of the Y chromosome, which serves as an indicator of biological sex. National federations are responsible for the testing and must confirm the sex of their athletes (18 years of age and older) upon registration for World Boxing competitions by submitting a certificate of chromosomal sex determined by a PCR test.

Khelif and Lin Yuting of Taiwan were banned from the 2023 World Championships by the IBA for allegedly failing a testosterone test. However, they were allowed to compete in Paris because the IOC considered gender in their passports the sole deciding factor. Like Lin, Khelif won the gold medal in her weight class – accompanied by attacks and a disinformation campaign by conservative circles that portrayed her as a "man fighting against women."