{"id":83584,"date":"2025-08-20T23:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T23:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/83584\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T23:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T23:36:14","slug":"fighters-will-undergo-screening-to-determine-sex-before-womens-world-boxing-championships-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/83584\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighters will undergo screening to determine sex before women’s World Boxing Championships | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boxers who want to compete in the women’s division at next month’s\u00a0World Boxing Championships in Liverpool will need to undergo tests to determine their sex.<\/p>\n

The international body, World Boxing, had already announced its plan to require competitors to undergo a polymerase chain reaction test or an equivalent genetic screening test to determine their sex at birth.<\/p>\n

The rules will be implemented ahead of the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool in early September, the organisation announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The organisation’s tests identify the presence or absence of Y chromosome genetic material to indicate biological sex.<\/p>\n

All boxers, including Algeria’s<\/a> Imane Khelif, 26, who won Olympic welterweight gold<\/a> in Paris 2024<\/a> in the female category, will be unable to compete<\/a> in their events until they undergo the test.<\/p>\n

Khelif’s disputed failed gender eligibility test – conducted by a different boxing body – was a major issue at the Olympics before she won gold.<\/p>\n

She has repeatedly said she was born a woman, and she has competed at all levels of women’s amateur boxing for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

“World Boxing respects the dignity of all individuals and is keen to ensure it is as inclusive as possible,” World Boxing president Boris Van Der Vorst said.<\/p>\n

“Yet in a combat sport like boxing, we have a duty of care to deliver safety and competitiveness fairness, which are the key principles that have guided the development and creation of this policy.”<\/p>\n

Khelif declined to enter a World Boxing tournament in the Netherlands<\/a> in June, shortly after the governing body initially announced its plans to introduce sex testing.<\/p>\n

\"Angela<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Angela Carini (L) did not shake hands with Imane Khelif after the Olympic match in August. Pic: AP<\/p>\n

The debate over the boxers has seen renewed discussion over athletes who may have differences in sexual development (DSD), which covers a group of conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs developing differently than expected.<\/p>\n

World Boxing said athletes with DSD in which male androgenisation occurs will be eligible to compete only in the men’s category.<\/p>\n

\"Follow<\/p>\n

Follow The World<\/p>\n

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday<\/p>\n

Tap to follow<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Gender boxing row<\/a>
World Boxing apologises to Khelif<\/a>
UK court rules on definition of a woman<\/a><\/p>\n

But the governing body also plans to offer extra analysis and evaluation for athletes with Y chromosome genetic material who wish to compete in the women’s categories, as well as an appeals process.<\/p>\n

National federations are responsible for conducting the tests and submitting the results, World Boxing said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chromosome testing was previously common in Olympic sports but was largely abandoned in the 1990s because of numerous ambiguities.<\/p>\n

Many sports switched to hormone testing, but it requires governing bodies to make difficult decisions on the eligibility of women with naturally high testosterone levels.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, World Athletics – the governing body for track and field – became the first Olympic sport to reintroduce chromosome testing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, US President Donald Trump<\/a> said there are only two sexes<\/a> – male and female – while calling on sports to ban transgender women from women’s events<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxers who want to compete in the women’s division at next month’s\u00a0World Boxing Championships in Liverpool will need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-83584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}