The French boxing team was excluded from the World Boxing organized World Cup, which takes place between September 4 and 14 in Liverpool, because the results of femininity tests required to participate could not be transmitted on time, FFBoxe (French Federation) announced on Thursday.
“With amazement and outrage, the technical staff of the France team knew, on Wednesday night (3), that the French boxers will not be able to participate in the first world championships organized by the World Boxing,” the federation wrote in a statement.
Romane Moulai (-48 kg), Wassila Lkhadiri (-51 kg), Melissa Bounoua (-54 kg), Sthélyne Gross (-57 kg) and Maëlys Richol (-65 kg) were scheduled to compete in Liverpool.
Almost a year after the Paris Olympic Games controversy about the genus of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-Tut, both absent in Liverpool, the new International Federation World Boxing announced its decision to make femininity tests mandatory.
However, these tests are prohibited in France, except under certain very strict conditions, so the French Federation explained that they could only perform them after its arrival in the United Kingdom.
After landing, the technical team and boxers went to a World Boxing accredited laboratory with the warranty, FFBoxe told the results that the results would be available within the established deadline.
“However, despite the repeated guarantees of the World Boxing, the laboratory that recommended us could not deliver the results of the exams on time,” the federation lamented.
“With the consequence of excluding our athletes as well as other foreign delegations boxers who also found themselves in the same situation,” he added, without needing the nationality.
Boxing Maëlys Richol expressed her “frustration, anger and disappointment”.
“After a whole year of work, we are excluded not for sports, but for disastrous and unfair management. It’s extremely difficult to endure,” he said.
French Minister Marie Barsacq considered the exclusion “inadmissible”.
