Although she was proclaimed Olympic champion in Paris (in the -66 kg category), Imane Khelif will not be able to compete in the next IBA World Championship, as was the case in 2023. This year’s World Championship will be held in the Serbian town of Nis from March 8 to 16, and the Olympic gold medallist will not be there.
The Algerian boxer became one of the protagonists of the Olympic Games because of her condition as a hyperandrogenic woman. The International Olympic Committee did authorize her presence in Paris, even though the International Boxing Association (IBA) had not allowed her to participate in the 2023 World Championships after failing gender eligibility tests. Now the IBA is again not allowing Khelif to compete.
Imane Khelif is not eligible for our World Championships; she does not meet the eligibility criteria
“Imane Khelif is not eligible for our World Championships; she does not meet the eligibility criteria,” said IBA Secretary General and CEO Chris Roberts. “Our technical rules clearly stipulate the requirements and eligibility criteria for the event.”
Before the Paris event, the IOC dismissed the IBA’s gender eligibility tests, claiming they are “flawed and illegitimate”. That is why both Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (who had also allegedly failed a gender eligibility test conducted by the IBA) were allowed to compete in the women’s category at last year’s Games.
It should be remembered thatKhelif, according to a medical report that was leaked after the Games, would have “5-alpha reductase deficiency, a disorder of sexual development that affects exclusively biologically male individuals”.
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