World Boxing Championships: French women's team excluded for not submitting gender test results on time

The French women's boxing team was excluded from the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, (United Kingdom) from Sept. 4-14,  after missing the deadline to submit the required gender test results.

Upon learning of World Boxing’s decision, the French Boxing Federation (FF Boxe) issued a statement calling the exclusion of its women's team from the World Boxing Championships "unfair."

"The French women's boxing team unjustly deprived of the world championship! With astonishment and indignation, the management of the French national team learned this Wednesday evening that French female boxers would not be able to participate in the first world championship organized by World Boxing," FF Boxe said.

To compete, World Boxing required members of all federations to undergo a gender test before taking part in the World Boxing Championships.

In France, such tests are banned, FF Boxe says, so its athletes had to wait until arriving in the UK to take them.

The athletes took the tests upon arriving in the UK, but the results weren’t issued in time, leading to their exclusion from the World Boxing Championships.

The team was made up of Romane Moulai, Wassila Lkhadiri, Melissa Bounoua, Sthélyne Grosy and Maëlys Richol.

This follows the controversy at the Paris 2024 Olympics over Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting competing in the women’s category, despite being unable to prove they are natural-born women.