Boxing: French women barred from World Championships due to a dispute over the results of "femininity tests"

The situation highlights the absurdity of the "femininity tests" imposed on athletes. The French women's boxing team has been barred from the World Boxing Championships, which begin this Thursday, September 4 in Liverpool. The reason: the results of the genetic tests required by the organization since this year could not be submitted in time by the British laboratory where they were carried out, the French Federation announced Thursday.

"It was with shock and indignation that the French team staff learned this Wednesday evening that the French boxers would not be able to participate in the first world championships organized by World Boxing," the French team wrote in a statement. Romane Moulai (-48 kg), Wassila Lkhadiri (-51 kg), Melissa Bounoua (-54 kg), Sthélyne Grosy (-57 kg) and Maëlys Richol (-65 kg), who were initially due to take part in the competition and had arrived on British soil.

Nearly a year after the heated controversy at the Paris Olympics surrounding the femininity of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting , both of whom were absent in Liverpool, the new international federation World Boxing announced at the end of May its decision to make "femininity tests" mandatory. The two athletes in question were also excluded by World Boxing, against whom Imane Khelif has taken legal action.

The chromosomal screening implemented amounts to excluding transgender athletes, as well as some of those who have always been considered female but have XY chromosomes, one of the forms of "differences of sexual development" or intersex.

Debunking

This process has attracted considerable criticism, particularly from the World Medical Association, human rights organizations, and the scientific community, as it is considered unreliable and reductive from a biological point of view. Sports historian and sociologist Anaïs Bohuon returned to Libération in June on the return of these genetic tests, in force at the Olympic Games between 1968 and 1996: "They were abandoned by the IOC because it led to the exclusion of many female athletes, without their physical advantage even being proven. […] I would never have thought that this method, necessarily discriminatory, would return in 2025. It is a radicalization and a backlash against women."

Since the tests are prohibited in France except under certain very strict conditions, the French Boxing Federation explains that it was only able to carry them out upon arrival in Great Britain. The French team's management therefore turned to a laboratory accredited by World Boxing, with the assurance, the FFBoxe claims, that the results would be available within the specified timeframe. "However, despite repeated guarantees from World Boxing, the laboratory, which it had itself recommended to us […] was unable to deliver the test results to us on time," the Federation regrets. "This resulted in the exclusion of our athletes, as well as other boxers from foreign delegations who also found themselves trapped."

An unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the French Federation last year, Estelle Mossely denounced "a sporting disaster" and "professional misconduct on the part of those in charge of the athletes." "I can't imagine the state the girls must be in, victims of the errors and shortcomings of their own federation," the 2016 Olympic champion declared on Instagram.

The French body, however, denied any negligence. "This malfunction, which is causing significant harm to our athletes, is in no way attributable to the French Federation," it wrote. "On the contrary, [the latter] mobilized from the outset to meet the demands of World Boxing and relied on the latter's commitments."

Boxer Maëlys Richol, for her part, expressed her "frustration, " "anger," and "disappointment." "After a whole year of work, we find ourselves sidelined not for a sporting reason, but because of disastrous and unfair management. It's extremely hard to take."