Boxing chiefs on Friday pledged to redouble efforts to get their message across about newly introduced genetic sex tests after a row overshadowed the start of the world championships.
Twelve boxers have reportedly been barred from competing in Liverpool, including the five-member women’s team from France, after they missed the deadline for test results to be submitted.
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French Sports Minister Marie Barsacq described the decision as “inadmissible” and the French federation, FFBoxe, reacted angrily.
The BBC reported that another seven athletes, from the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Nigeria and the Philippines, were unable to compete.
Maelys Richol, one of the five French boxers affected, said she felt “frustration, anger and disappointment”.
World Boxing blamed the national federations, saying they were given ample warning of the new policy, which was announced in May.
But acting secretary general Mike McAtee, speaking to AFP in Liverpool on Friday, the second day of the championships, struck a more conciliatory tone.
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“Anything medical takes time,” he said. “I’m old enough to remember when we started doing HIV testing and hepatitis testing. There is a slight learning curve, but now nobody thinks about it twice.”
The American insisted World Boxing had communicated its new policy to officials at many levels, aware that many federations had staffing challenges.
World Boxing was only granted provisional recognition as the international federation governing the sport within the Olympic movement in February.
“We need to see how we can perform better, not only on eligibility, but everything else,” said McAtee.
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“We’re an old sport in a very young body.
“So how do we make ourselves better, and how can we support? We have members like GB Boxing, England, Scotland, Wales, that have funding and are able to do it.
“And then we have other national federations that just don’t have the funding. So we need to be able to do better in support of our members.”
McAtee said that in future World Boxing would consider going straight to athletes over the testing requirements.
“Maybe we should also start contacting the boxers and say, ‘Hey, remind your coaches, your team managers, your administrators'”.
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– Genetic test –
Under World Boxing’s policy, fighters over 18 who want to participate in the women’s category need to take a one-off PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or medical equivalent genetic test.
It follows a gender row involving Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting at last year’s Paris Olympics.
The two athletes had been excluded from the International Boxing Association’s (IBA’s) 2023 world championships after that organisation said they had failed eligibility tests.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stepped in to oversee boxing at the Paris Games, allowed them both to compete, saying they had been victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA”. Both went on to win gold medals.
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During the Games, both fighters were subjected to attacks on social media, rumours about their biological sex and disinformation.
The IOC leaped to their defence, saying they were born and raised as women, and have passports attesting to that.
Neither Khelif nor Lin are boxing in Liverpool, where boxers were reluctant to address the issue.
Taiwan’s boxing association said Lin would not be competing despite reportedly submitting her test results.
Khelif has turned to sport’s top court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, to challenge World Boxing’s gender testing policy.
It comes against a background of turmoil in amateur boxing in recent years.
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The IOC severed links with the IBA in 2023 over financial, governance and ethical concerns. The IBA is led by the Kremlin-linked Russian Umar Kremlev.
Boxing was not even on the initial sports programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics but McAtee said the amateur sport was now back on track.
“We’re on path, we’ve already done site visits, we’re having monthly meetings, and then we also have the Youth Olympic Games coming up next year in Dakar,” he said.
“We’re an international federation, and we’re going to work every day, rolling up our sleeves and getting it done.”
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