The French women’s boxing team has been barred from competing at the inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool after missing the deadline to submit results from newly mandated genetic sex tests- a requirement that has sparked legal, ethical, and sporting controversy.
The decision affects all five members of the French team, as well as seven other athletes from Nigeria, Fiji, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic, who also failed to meet the September 1st deadline.
World Boxing Championships: New Policy vs National Law
The exclusion stems from a new policy introduced by World Boxing earlier this year, requiring all boxers aged 18 and over to undergo PCR-based genetic testing to determine sex at birth. The aim, the organisation says, is to ensure fair eligibility standards in women’s divisions, following a series of gender disputes in recent years.
But in France, such tests are banned under a 1994 law, unless performed under strict legal or medical circumstances. This left the French Boxing Federation (FFBoxe) unable to comply until its athletes arrived in the UK.
Despite what FFBoxe claims were guarantees that results would be delivered within 24 hours, the tests were not returned in time.
“It is with stupefaction and indignation that the French team learned on Wednesday evening that our boxers would not be able to compete,” FFBoxe said in a statement. “Despite guarantees given to us by World Boxing, the laboratory they recommended was not up to the task of delivering results on time.”
World Boxing Responds
In response, World Boxing expressed disappointment but placed the responsibility squarely on national federations.
“Since we first announced our intention to introduce mandatory sex testing, we made it clear that national federations are responsible for testing and ensuring boxers meet deadlines,” a spokesperson said. “It is very disappointing that some athletes have not made it through the entry process.”
The organisation declined to say whether any athletes failed the tests or were disqualified based on the results.
How Athletes Reacted
Among the five excluded French boxers is Maëlys Richol, who publicly called for accountability. “Months of training, sacrifice, and hope have been wasted. Someone must take responsibility for this failure,” she told reporters in Liverpool.
Dominique Nato, president of the French Boxing Federation, went further, calling the exclusion a “betrayal.”
“I called Boris van der Vorst [World Boxing president] and told him he was taking away these girls’ dreams,” Nato said in an interview with L’Équipe. “He told me he was sorry, but the decision was in the hands of their legal team.”
A Broader Divide in Sport
This incident comes amid a turbulent period for boxing governance. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently replaced the scandal-ridden International Boxing Association (IBA) with World Boxing as the sport’s provisional governing body. However, policies such as mandatory genetic sex testing place World Boxing at odds with the IOC’s more lenient eligibility stance.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, athletes such as Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were allowed to compete in the women’s category based on passport sex designation- not genetic tests. Both won gold.
Khelif, who had previously been disqualified from a 2023 event over a failed gender test, is now challenging World Boxing’s new policy in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“I see myself as a girl, just like any other girl,” she said earlier this year. “I was born a girl, raised as a girl, and have lived my entire life as one.”
Also Read: World Boxing Championships Liverpool: All You Need To Know
Legal and Ethical Questions
The controversy raises serious questions about athlete rights, privacy, and the ethics of gender verification in sport. Critics argue the policy may target women based on appearance or stereotype, and could violate international human rights standards.
“There is a profound lack of due process and scientific consensus here,” said Dr. Elise Garnier, a French sports ethicist. “Policies like this run the risk of criminalizing natural biological variation under the guise of fairness.”
