“Inacceptable”
Interfestation for gender tests: WM ban on France
Updated on 04.09.2025 – 8:41 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
France’s women are missing at the boxing World Cup starting on Thursday. That is related to new regulations.
France’s team of women will not take part in the Boxing World Championships in Liverpool (September 4th to 14th). The World Association World Boxing excluded the five athletes because the results of the prescribed genitals do not present them in time.
The French association spoke about the decision in a message of “stunned and outrage”. Sports Minister Marie Barsacq also criticized the exclusion and described him as “unacceptable”.
The background is a law of 1994, which in France genes only allowed under strict requirements. Therefore, the association decided to have the investigations only carried out in England after the boxers’ arrival. “Despite the guarantees that World Boxing had given us, the laboratory that they recommended was unable to deliver the results in time,” it said in an explanation.
Maëly’s Richol, one of the five affected athletes, spoke of “frustration, anger and disappointment”.
World Boxing had introduced the obligation to provide gender tests at the end of May. Accordingly, athletes from the age of 18 have to complete a PCR test that proves the Sry gene. This gene is considered an indication of the Y chromosome and thus serves to determine the biological gender.