Regarding New Gender Test Policy, World Boxing President Officially Apologizes for Singling Out Imane Khelif
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Paris, France (June 4th, 2025)– 2024 Paris Olympic Games Female Gold Medalist Imane Khelif, who name was singled out in the new World Boxing press release making sex gender test mandatory for all amateur athletes as of July 1, 2025, has been apologized to via the Algerian Boxing Federation by World Boxing President Boris Van der Vorst, who acknowledged singling her out was wrong.
In a letter seen by the Associated Press to Algeria, Van der Vorst stated: “I am writing to you all personally to offer a formal and sincere apology for this, and acknowledge that her (Imani’s Khelif’s) privacy should have been protected (instead of citing her name without evidence). I hope (on behalf of World Boxing) by reaching out to you personally, we can show our true respect to you and your athletes.”
Khelif and fellow female Featherweight Olympic Gold Medalist Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan were both disqualified from the 2023 World Amateur Championships by the previous amateur Olympic governing organization, the International Boxing Association, claiming they both failed an unspecified eligibility test.
However, in Paris in 2024, the International Olympic Committee officially cleared Khelif and Yu-Ting for eligibility to compete, citing sex eligibility standards used in previous Olympic Games which were still officially in force and had not been changed at the time, before the International Olympic Committee changed its governing body from the IBA to World Boxing after the events were concluded. The IOC based its 2024 ruling on female passport status, which while not a biological test, was the longstanding litmus test in force.
A recently leaked medical report which prevented Khelif from participating in the 2023 World Amateur Championships in New Delhi apparently indicated the 2024 Olympic champion Khelif was a biological female, triggering the new controversy. The India document described Khelif’s test results as abnormal for female gender, stating chromosomal analysis revealed male karyotype. The Indian laboratory which conducted the tests is certified by the American College of Pathologists, and is certified by the International Organization for Standardization in Switzerland.
The boxing competition at the Paris Games was run by the IOC after it stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance. The IOC association, run by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev with close links to the Kremlin, accused the IOC of allowing two female athletes, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, who had been banned by the IBA previously, citing the chromosome test, to compete.
The then International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach stated in reply “I would not consider this a real crisis because all this discussion is based on a fake news campaign coming from Russia. This was part of the many, many fake news campaigns we had to face from Russia before Paris and after Paris.” Bach also stated the dispute over the boxers would have been a non-issue were it not for the IBA, given that the two boxers had competed for years, including at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, with no issues.
The IOC itself does not have a universal rule on the participation of transgender athletes or athletes with differences of sexual development, with each country’s boxing and athletic federations drawing up their own regulations. The new World Boxing amateur group applying new gender standards is a new development. All amateur boxers competing at all levels worldwide will have to comply, but no specific name needs to be cited in implementing the new policy, given the total compliance of previous participants with all previous rules in force.
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