Wed, June 04, 2025
World Boxing to introduce compulsory sex testing from July
World Boxing has announced that it will implement compulsory sex testing for all boxers starting from 1 July 2025. On 25 February 2025, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) provisionally recognised World Boxing as the International Federation within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at the world level. This eventually enabled boxing to be restored to the LA28 Olympic Games programme, following controversy between the IOC and International Boxing Association (IBA).
In 2019, the IOC suspended the IBA, led by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, due to issues related to governance, finance, refereeing and ethics. As a result, the IBA was not involved in organising boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and was stripped of its recognition in 2023.
To make matters worse, the IBA also announced plans to take legal action against the IOC over the inclusion of Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting at last year's Olympic Games. The two female boxers had been excluded from the IBA's 2023 world championships after the fighters failed gender eligibility tests, but the IOC cleared them to fight, and both went on to win gold medals in Paris. The IOC stated that the IBA’s tests were biased, and that Khelif was “born a woman.”
Now, World Boxing has seemingly aligned its policies more closely with the IBA and World Athletics by introducing mandatory sex testing which forms part of its new wider policy concerning “Sex, Age and Weight” which, according to its official statement, “ensures the safety of all athletes” and fairness.
World Boxing has expressed that the policy was developed by an expert Working Group of the World Boxing Medical and Anti-Doping Committee which analysed “data and medical evidence from an extensive range of sources and consulted with other sports.”
All boxers above the age of 18 that wish to compete in a World Boxing owned or sanctioned event will need to comply with a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) genetic test to confirm their sex. A PCR test detects the SRY gene which reveals the presence of the Y (male) chromosome. A nasal/mouth swab, saliva or blood are all sufficient.
Those athletes with Difference of Sex Development (DSD) where male androgenization occurred, which is the development of male secondary sexual characteristics often due to exposure to male hormones such as testosterone, will have to compete in the male category. Conversely, DSD athletes who have not undergone male androgenization and have therefore not experienced the physical changes associated with male puberty will be eligible for the female category.
In the wake of this new policy, National Federations will hold the responsibility for testing their athletes and will now have to provide World Boxing with certification of their athletes’ chromosomal sex through a PCR test. Failure to do so will result in sanctions. World Boxing has the right to undertake genetic sex screening on new or existing athlete samples for confirmation and clarification purposes.
Within its statement, World Boxing expresses that boxers who present an adverse PCR test will be provided with support.
Crucially, this means that Algeria’s controversial figure Imane Khelif will be prohibited from competing in the female category at the Eindhoven Box Cup or any World Boxing competition until she complies with sex testing. World Boxing stated that this will be beneficial for Khelif’s own “mental health” too, considering she bore the brunt of a “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign and online lynching,” according to her lawyer Nabil Boudi.
In World Boxing’s letter to the Algerian Boxing Federation on 30 May 2025, which it also references in its official statement, it declared that: “In accordance with the World Boxing Statutes, amendments to the Competition Rules are typically made by Congress. However, under special or emergency circumstances, the World Boxing Executive Board holds the authority to make immediate amendments when a rule is deemed no longer functional or when evolving conditions necessitate a change,” hence the requirement for Khelif to be tested.
In a recent update as of yesterday evening, however, the president of World Boxing, Boris van der Vorst, has apologised for singling Khelif out in its official statement.
He expressed to the Algerian Boxing Federation: “I am writing to you all personally to offer a formal and sincere apology for this and acknowledge that her privacy should have been protected,” as reported by The Associated Press.
Sky Sports reporter Geraint Hughes voiced: “It will be another difficult few weeks for Khelif but we may get some clarity at the end of this process…
If the test is done once and it says a boxer is either a female or a male you'd think if it is legal, signed off by an accredited laboratory and everything is done properly, that is a very clear end of the matter, you would hope…
But the caveat is that another test could be taken.”
World Boxing’s official statement can be found here - World Boxing to introduce mandatory sex testing for all boxers - World Boxing.
