Olympic champion boxer Imane Khelif is challenging the global boxing federation’s decision to mandate gender testing to determine the eligibility of male and female boxers.
In May, World Boxing said Khelif, an Algerian boxer, would be banned from all World Boxing competitions until she underwent the mandatory test. The decision to mandate testing came in part due to the controversy surrounding Khelif after she won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement that Khelif was challenging World Boxing’s decision. It said the appeal, filed on Aug. 5, also requested that CAS declare Khelif eligible to participate in the 2025 World Boxing Championships from Sept. 4-14 without a test.
CAS said it had dismissed on Monday a request to suspend the execution of the World Boxing testing until the case is heard.
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Khelif was one of two boxers who sparked a gender eligibility furor at the Paris Games. The other was Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, who has entered to compete at the world championships that start this week in Liverpool.
Both fighters won Olympic gold medals, but Khelif’s opening bout, when she left her Italian opponent in tears, sparked criticism from a range of commentators, including now-U.S. Vice President JD Vance and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
Khelif boxed for years on the international stage without any gender issues or questions until the year before the Olympics, when she was disqualified from the International Boxing Association’s world championships.
Last month, she denied claims made by her former manager that she was putting her career on hold.
“I would like to make it clear to the public that the reports of my retirement from boxing are false,” the 26-year-old wrote on Facebook.
She accused her former manager, Nasser Yesfah, of “betraying (her) trust and (her) country with his false and malicious statements.”
“This person no longer represents me in any way,” she said.
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