World Boxing has issued an apology to the Algerian Boxing Federation saying it was not correct to name boxer Imane Khelif in an announcement that makes gender testing mandatory.
The sporting body had earlier issued a statement, announcing that it was making gender testing compulsory to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes wanting to take part in its competitions.
World Boxing said it had informed the Algerian Boxing Federation Khelif would have to undergo the test if she wanted to compete at the Eindhoven Box Cup in the Netherlands on June 5-10.
This drew sharp reaction from the Algerian federation, prompting an apology from the global body.
“The president of World Boxing does not think it was correct to have a named a specific athlete in a statement issued last Friday,” it said in a statement, according to AFP.
It added that World Boxing “has written personally to the president of the Algerian Boxing Federation to offer a formal and sincere apology which acknowledges that greater effort should have been made to avoid linking the policy to any individual”.
As per the Associated Press, a personal letter was written to Alegrian Boxing Federation by Boris van der Vorst.
“I am writing to you all personally to offer a formal and sincere apology for this and acknowledge that her privacy should have been protected,” he said in the letter, seen by AP.
Imane Khelif and fellow gold medalist Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan were in the spotlight in Paris because the previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships, claiming they failed an unspecified eligibility test.
Under the new policy, all athletes over 18 that want to participate in a World Boxing owned or sanctioned competition will need to undergo a PCR, or polymerase chain reaction genetic test, to determine what sex they were at birth and their eligibility to compete.
The PCR test is a laboratory technique used to detect specific genetic material, in this case the SRY gene, that reveals the presence of the Y chromosome, which is an indicator of biological sex.
The test can be conducted by a nasal or mouth swab, or by taking a sample of saliva or blood.
National federations will be responsible for testing and will be required to confirm the sex of their athletes when entering them into World Boxing competitions by producing certification of their chromosomal sex, as determined by a PCR test.
