This was a big story during the Paris Olympics last year. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal despite controversy surrounding whether Khelif was a man or a woman.
Khelif won gold in the women’s 66kg category at last summer’s Olympic Games, having been cleared to compete despite being disqualified from the 2023 world championships organized by the International Boxing Association for allegedly failing to meet eligibility criteria.
It was how Khelif won that medal made this a big controversy.
In one of the most shaming episodes in Olympic history, Italy’s Angela Carini was forced after only 46 seconds to abandon a fight against an Algerian boxer who had failed two sex tests, claiming she had been hit so hard by Imane Khelif that she feared for her life.
There was widespread and immediate condemnation of the International Olympic Committee for how it had placed Carini in a position of extreme danger by pitting her against Imane Khelif, a biological male, to the point where she said that she “couldn’t breathe anymore”. She could be heard telling her corner during the fight: “Non è giusto” (“It’s not fair”).
Khelif was allowed to compete at these Paris Games despite being thrown out of last year’s world championships in Delhi for failing a testosterone test. Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who fights on Friday, was disqualified for the same reason. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association, said that DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”. XY is the male chromosomal make-up, while female is XX…
Carini, 25, was distraught in the aftermath, disclosing that she had feared for her life. Having crumpled to the canvas, she said, with tears streaming down her face: “I am heartbroken. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this. After the second blow to the nose, I couldn’t breathe anymore. I went to my coach and said ‘enough’. It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment.”
The UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls said of the bout, “Angela Carini rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex.” This wasn’t even the first time something like this had happened involving Khelif.
During a fight in Guadalajara in December 2022, the Algerian landed shots of such force on Mexico’s Brianda Tamara that the beaten fighter said she was relieved to escape the ring alive. “I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was governing boxing itself during the 2024 Olympics after having cut ties with the International Boxing Association in 2023. But after the situation with Khelif became a major scandal, the IOC recognized World Boxing as the new governing body for the sport going forward. Today, World Boxing announced that it was introducing a new policy around sex for future competitions, one which requires mandatory sex testing.
World Boxing will introduce mandatory sex testing, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes that want to take part in its competitions. The introduction of mandatory testing will be part of a new policy on “Sex, Age and Weight” to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women.
The policy is in the final stages of development and has been crafted by a specially convened Working Group of the World Boxing Medical and Anti-Doping Committee, which has examined data and medical evidence from an extensive range of sources and consulted widely with other sports and experts across the world.
In light of that, they sent a letter to the Alegerian Boxing Federation specifically saying Khelif would not be able to compete without undergoing a “genetic sex screening.”
“Imane Khelif may not participate in the female category at the Eindhoven Box Cup, 5-10 June 2025 and any World Boxing event until Imane Khelif undergoes genetic sex screening in accordance with World Boxing’s rules and testing procedures…
“Please be advised that, per World Boxing policy, “…in the event the athlete’s sex certification is challenged by the athlete’s federation or by World Boxing, the athlete shall be ineligible to compete until the dispute is resolved…”
Athletes will be asked to do a cheek swab for a simple PCR test to determine if they have a Y chromosome. It’s non-invasive.
The PCR test is a laboratory technique used to detect specific genetic material, in this case the SRY gene, that reveals the presence of the Y chromosome, which is an indicator of biological sex. The test can be a be conducted by nasal/mouth swab, saliva or blood.
Athletes that are deemed to be male at birth, as evidenced by the presence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a difference of sexual development (DSD) where male androgenization occurs, will be eligible to compete in the male category.
Athletes that are deemed to be female at birth, as evidenced by the presence of XX chromosomes or the absence of Y chromosome genetic material (the SRY gene) or with a DSD where male androgenization does not occur, will be eligible to compete in the female category.
This seems like a pretty obvious way to maintain the sex categories which have existed in international sports since women began competing at the modern Olympics in 1900. (Those games were held in Paris.)
Khelif has always maintained she is a she but hasn’t boxed internationally since the Olympics last year. This test should conclusive decide the matter. If Khelif is proven to have a Y chromosome that should lead to a reconsideration of the gold medal Khelif received in the Paris Olympics and should probably also lead to someone at the IOC getting fired. We shall see.
