Algerian boxer Imane Khelif appealed to the World Boxing’s arbitration of the sports of the sport that prohibits her to participate in events unless she undergoes a genetic genetic test, the court said on Monday (1).
The appeal seeks to annul the decision and allow Khelif to comply with the 2025 World Box Championship without submitting to the test, the CAS reported in a statement, adding that he rejected the request of the boxer suspension of the decision while the case is tried.
Argenlina, along with Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Tut, was in the midst of a controversy over her genre during the Paris 2024 Olympics. The two took a gold medal in France.
Khelif and Lin participated in the 2021 Olympic Games, controversial, and at that time no medal won.
Both were excluded by the 2023 World Cup International Boxing Association, after the organization said they had failed gender eligibility tests.
But the COI (International Olympic Committee) allowed them to compete in Paris, saying they had been victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision of the IBA”.
Khelif and Lin are not transgender women. Both were born and grew up as women, and thus registered in their passports.
At the end of last month, World Boxing stated that women wishing to participate in the World Championship in England, between September 4 and 14, will have to undergo “mandatory gender tests,” according to their new policy.
Lin Yu-Tting agreed to submit to the tests. “They announced that everyone should go through them, so we’ll pass,” said Lin coach Tseng Tzu-Chiang.
“If you want to compete, you need to follow the rules of the competition. As we will participate, we will have to follow their rules,” he added.
The new policy forces sportsmen over the age of 18 who wish to participate in a World Boxing organized competition undergo a PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) test to determine their birth sex.
World Boxing will organize the boxing competitions of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 after receiving provisional recognition from the IOC.
