Chaos in Liverpool: Imane Khelif Banned and French Women’s Team Booted Over Gender Test Fiasco

What a mess. The World Championships in Liverpool were supposed to show World Boxing could run the sport better than the IBA ever did. Instead, fight week’s turned into a circus before a punch has even been thrown. Olympic champion Imane Khelif is barred. The entire French women’s team is barred. And the reason? Gender test chaos, missed deadlines, and rules no one can agree on.

Imane Khelif, 26, hasn’t fought since winning gold at Paris 2024, beating China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the welterweight final. That should’ve cemented her legacy, but the noise about her eligibility never stopped. The IBA banned her in 2023, claiming she failed gender eligibility checks. The IOC stepped in back then, called that ruling “a sudden and arbitrary decision”, and cleared her to fight in Paris — where she and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting both walked away with gold. Now World Boxing has swung the other way, demanding mandatory sex tests across the board.

Khelif Speaks, World Boxing Doubles Down

Khelif’s stance hasn’t changed. After Paris she said: “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition — I am a woman. I was born a woman, I’ve lived as a woman and I’ve competed as a woman. There’s no doubt that there are enemies of success, and that gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”

But World Boxing’s new line is simple: no SRY gene test, no fight. Her team floated an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but Sky Sports confirmed nothing’s been filed. CAS also made clear these things take weeks, so she was never going to be cleared for Liverpool.

French Team Caught in the Trap

If Khelif’s case wasn’t messy enough, the French women’s team got hit by pure bureaucracy. Their federation, FFBoxe, said the squad couldn’t even do the tests in France because the law bans that type of genetic screening. So they waited until they landed in England. Tests were done, but results didn’t make the deadline. Five fighters — gone.

The federation was livid: “It is with stupefaction and indignation that the French team learned… the French women’s boxing team would not be able to compete,” they blasted, blaming World Boxing’s own accredited lab for failing to deliver on time. One of the fighters, Maelys Richol, didn’t hide her feelings either: “After an entire year of work we find ourselves thrown out not for sporting reasons but because of disastrous and unfair management.”

Same Old Politics, Different Badge

World Boxing was supposed to clean up the mess left by IBA. Instead, their first big showpiece looks like déjà vu. Athletes losing out not in the ring, but in the admin office. Fans watching champions banned while federations argue about deadlines.

Here’s the truth: the IOC already slammed IBA for “arbitrary” bans. Now World Boxing is repeating the same mistake — just with a different stamp. If this carries on, it won’t matter who’s in charge. Fighters will keep getting stitched up, fans will lose trust, and the sport’s credibility will sink even further. Khelif and the French squad aren’t beaten by opponents here — they’ve been beaten by politics.