Cisgender Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has taken her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after World Boxing barred her from competing unless she submits to a genetic sex test. The controversial ban comes just days before the start of the World Boxing Championships.
Earlier this year, World Boxing introduced a new policy mandating sex verification for all athletes—specifically naming Khelif in its announcement. In a statement, the organisation said, “In light of plans to introduce this policy and the particular circumstances surrounding some boxers that competed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, World Boxing has written to the Algerian Boxing Federation to inform it that Imane Khelif will not be allowed to participate in the female category at the Eindhoven Box Cup or any World Boxing event until Imane Khelif undergoes sex testing.”
On Monday, the court declined Khelif’s request to lift the ban while her appeal proceeds. Written arguments are currently being exchanged, and a hearing date will be scheduled once both parties agree.
Khelif has faced similar scrutiny before. In 2023, both she and Taiwanese gold medallist Lin Yu-ting were disqualified by the International Boxing Association after failing sex eligibility tests—despite later being cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee. Khelif went on to deliver a standout performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, clinching gold after a dominant win over Italy’s Angela Carini. Her victory drew international media attention, with public figures such as Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling falsely claiming she was transgender.
Speaking out against the ban, Khelif 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.”
Her case, alongside Lin’s, brings renewed focus to the long and often discriminatory history of sex testing in women’s sport. A 2020 Human Rights Watch report detailed nearly 80 years of sex verification practices, highlighting how women—particularly those of colour and from the Global South—have been disproportionately targeted. Once involving invasive “nude parades,” such policies evolved into hyperandrogenism testing, and more recently, into genetic verification methods affecting athletes like Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand.
Though Lin was initially expected to compete at the upcoming championships, she has since withdrawn. Her coach had previously stated she had “not considered withdrawing from the competition because of the new gender tests.”
As the case unfolds, Khelif continues to fight not just for her right to compete, but for the broader rights of female athletes around the world to do so without suspicion or discrimination.
