Olympic champion Imane Khelif of Algeria, the subject of an ongoing gender controversy, has filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against World Boxing concerning a decision that disallows the athlete’s participation in upcoming World Boxing events without a preliminary genetic test. The appeal, filed on August 5th, seeks to overturn a decision by World Boxing that Khelif “was not allowed to participate in the Box Cup in Eindhoven, nor in any World Boxing event until she had undergone genetic sex testing”. The appeal also requested that CAS declare Khelif eligible to participate in the 2025 World Boxing Championships, which starts on September 4th, without a gender test.
On September 1st, CAS dismissed a request to suspend the execution of the decision by World Boxing until the full case is heard. The parties are currently exchanging written submissions and with their agreement, a hearing will be scheduled. CAS procedures whilst ongoing, are confidential.
PRIOR BOXINGTALK COVERAGE
Imane Khelif of Algeria defeated Yang Liu of the People’s Republic of China to win gold in women’s welterweight division at Olympic Games in Paris on Friday at Stade Roland-Garros. Khelif was one of two boxers embroiled in a controversy about her gender. She previously competed at Tokyo 2021, where she became the first female boxer to represent Algeria at the Olympics. Since then, the 25-year-old Khelif has won gold medals at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and the 2023 Arab Games. She won the Paris 2024 final in dominant fashion by a final tally of 5-0.
"I’m very happy. For eight years, this has been my dream and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medallist," Khelif said. "I’ve worked for eight years, no sleep, eight years tired. Now I’m Olympic champion."
Khelif had been disqualified from the 2023 world amateur championships under suspicious circumstances. After competing for years and even winning the opening round of the 2023 tournament, IBA, the organization that runs the world amateur championship, abruptly disqualified Khelif for failing a gender test. Full details of the test were not revealed. Khelif is not transgender, having lived her entire life as a woman. While IBA controls the world amateur championships, it has no authority to determine who is eleigible for the Olympics becuae the International Olympic Committee threw IBA out of the Olympics over proven corruption in the 2016 Olympics.
The IOC issued a statement addressing the controversy. Neither Khelif nor Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan are transgender, but there appears to be concerns about their chromosomes (females are XX, males are XY) or testosterone levels. The IOC stated, "We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments. These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process."
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