Imane Khelif has the right to appeal the decision of world boxing from events unless it undergoes genetic sexual evidence, but the Algerian is not competing in the World Championship, since it has not entered, said the world boxing president, Boris van der Vortst.
World Boxing, which will supervise boxing at the 2028 Olympic Games, introduced mandatory sexual evidence for all boxers in their competitions in May, less than a year after Lin Yu-Ting of Khelif and Taiwan won gold in Paris in the middle of a gender eligibility row.
But Khelif appealed to the Arbitration Court for Sports, the highest field of sport, which seeks to cancel the failure of world boxing asking boxers to perform a PCR genetic test (polymerase chain reaction).
“She has the right to do this (appeal). For us, it is important to emphasize that we introduced mandatory evidence to have safe and competitive competitions, fair competitions,” said Van Vortst on Wednesday.
“We announce it in May. And for us, they are all equal. Every woman here has to present several documents, including sexual evidence.”
The World Boxing Championships are launched in Liverpool on Thursday and when asked if Khelif would have failed in the test, said Van der Vortst: “It is too early to draw conclusions.”
“She has simply not entered the name of her own federation here in Liverpool.”
The Algerian Boxing Federation did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
On Tuesday, World Boxing confirmed that Taiwan’s Lin would not compete in the World Championship either.
“I know that she is not part of the entry list of the National Federation,” added Van der Vortst.
The Dutchman apologized in June when world boxing specifically appointed Khelif in his announcement on mandatory sexual evidence.
However, he defended the decision of such evidence to ensure that they had “safe and fair competitions.”
“We are talking not only about amateur boxing, but Olympic boxing. For us, that is our brand, because that is the ‘why’ world boxing. We established world boxing to save the Olympic dream,” he said.
“Boxing is a combat sport and it is important to have safe and fair competitions. Therefore, for us, it is really crucial to introduce this type of tests. I think it is an important step that we show that we want to protect female boxing.”
