The French women’s team have been barred from the World Boxing Championships because the results of their gender tests were not delivered on time, the French Boxing Federation (FFBoxe) said yesterday, adding to controversy surrounding the event after the organizer failed to respond to Taiwanese Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting after she submitted her sex tests.
World Boxing last month said that women wanting to compete in the event in Liverpool, England, that was to start yesterday would have to undergo mandatory genetic sex testing under its new policy.
Such tests have been banned in France since a law was passed in 1994, save under strict conditions, so the French federation had to wait until they reached England to proceed with them.
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The five-member team underwent testing in a World Boxing-accredited laboratory with the understanding that the results would be available before the deadline, FFBoxe said.
“We are sorry some boxers did not meet the deadline for results of testing, but the rules and deadlines were published,” a World Boxing official said.
Nevertheless FFBoxe was seething over the decision.
“It is with stupefaction and indignation that the French team learned on Wednesday evening the French women’s boxing team would not be able to compete in the first world championships organized by World Boxing,” it said in a statement.
“Despite guarantees given to us by World Boxing, the laboratory which they recommended to us was not up to the task of delivering the results on time,” it said. “As a result our athletes as well as those from other countries have been caught in this trap and excluded.”
Maelys Richol, one of the five boxers affected, said she felt “frustration, anger and disappointment.”
“After an entire year of work we find ourselves thrown out not for sporting reasons, but because of disastrous and unfair management,” said Richol, who was to compete in the under-65kg category. “It is extremely tough to absorb.”
Taiwan’s boxing association this week announced that it pulled Lin from the championships after not receiving a reply from World Boxing by Monday, the departure day for the tournament. The association said it submitted all of the required tests.
It has become a major issue in boxing since the Paris Olympics last year when Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif were at the center of a gender row.
Lin and Khelif were excluded from the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) 2023 world championships after it said they had failed eligibility tests.
However, the International Olympic Committee allowed them to compete in Paris, saying they had been victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA.”
Both went on to win gold medals.
Khelif has turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, to challenge World Boxing’s introduction of the genetic sex test.
Lin and Khelif were subjected to attacks on social media, rumors about their biological sex and disinformation during the Paris Games.
The committee leaped to their defense, saying they were born and raised as women, and have passports attesting to that.
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