Olympic champion Imane Khelif fights, appeals World Boxing's genetic sex testing rule

Olympic champion Imane Khelif has appealed against a World Boxing decision barring her from upcoming events unless she undergoes genetic sex testing.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Monday that the Algerian boxer filed the appeal last month.

Khelif was bidding to compete in the world boxing championships, which start on Thursday, but CAS added that on Monday, it dismissed a request to suspend the World Boxing decision until the case was heard.

Khelif won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year amid international scrutiny on her and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, another gold medal winner. She has always competed in the women's division and there has been no evidence or anything to suggest that she identifies as anything other than a woman. 

The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships after claiming they failed unspecified eligibility tests.

But the IBA was banished because of decades of misdeeds and controversy. The IOC ran the past two Olympic boxing tournaments in its place and it applied the sex eligibility rules used in previous Olympics. Under those standards, Khelif and Lin were eligible to compete.

World Boxing has since been provisionally approved as the boxing organiser at the 2028 Los Angeles Games and has faced pressure from boxers and their federations to create sex eligibility standards.

In May, the governing body announced mandatory sex testing for all athletes and specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy — something it later apologised for.

Khelif plans to defend her welterweight gold medal at the LA Games. New IOC President Kirsty Coventry has initiated a task force to look at gender eligibility issues.

Khelif last year filed a legal complaint in France for online harassment after a rain of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Paris Olympics.

The complaint was filed with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor's office for combating online hate speech, alleging "aggravated cyber-harassment" targeting Khelif, her lawyer Nabil Boudi said.

In a statement, he described it as a "misogynist, racist and sexist campaign" against the boxer.

Khelif was unwittingly thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight, when Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out just seconds into the match, citing pain from opening punches.

Khelif previously said that the spread of misconceptions about her "harms human dignity".