Latest news with #SRY
France 24
5 days ago
- Sport
- France 24
Boxer Khelif not competing in latest tournament: organisers
Dirk Renders, spokesman for the Eindhoven Box Cup, confirmed to AFP the boxer would not be taking part, adding: "The decision of her exclusion is up to World Boxing." World Boxing has introduced mandatory gender testing for competitors over 18 and had informed the Algerian federation Khelif would have to undergo the test to compete in Eindhoven this week. Under the new policy, all athletes in World Boxing-sanctioned competitions need to take a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, to determine what sex they were at birth. The PCR test, conducted via a nasal or mouth swab, detects specific genetic material -- in this case the SRY gene -- that reveals the presence of the Y chromosome, an indicator of biological gender. The controversy around Khelif, who won Gold in the women's welterweight class in Paris, was one of the stories of the Games. The scandal erupted when Khelif defeated Italy's Angela Carini in 46 seconds in her opening bout, the Italian reduced to tears after suffered a badly hurt nose. Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, then found themselves at the centre of a gender row that attracted comments from US President Donald Trump and "Harry Potter" author Both boxers had been disqualified from the International Boxing Association's (IBA) 2023 world championships after the organisation said they had failed gender eligibility tests. But the International Olympic Committee later stripped the IBA of its right to organise the boxing in Paris over financial, governance, and ethical concerns. The IOC allowed them both to compete in Paris saying they had been victims of "a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA". "The two female athletes mentioned by the IBA are not transgender athletes," the IOC said in a statement to AFP in February. "They were born as women, were raised as women, and have competed in the women's category for their entire boxing careers," said the IOC. World Boxing will organise the boxing competition at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics after the IOC granted it provisional recognition. 'Born a woman' Khelif is a role model to many in Algeria and received strong support from authorities and fans during the controversy in Paris. After winning Gold, she said the medal was the best response to her critics. "I am fully qualified to take part. I am a woman like any other. I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman," she said. The row rumbled on well beyond Paris, with the IBA saying in February it would sue the IOC for clearing Khelif to box at the Games. Khelif jabbed back that the accusations were "false and offensive", adding: "This is a matter that concerns not just me but the broader principles of fairness and due process in sport." She has vowed to take her own legal action to refute the accusations. "I am not going anywhere. I will fight in the ring, I will fight in the courts and I will fight in the public eye until the truth is undeniable," she said. World Boxing, which took over governance of the sport from the IBA, was forced into an embarrassing climbdown of its own earlier this week. It had initially named Khelif in its statement announcing the new testing policy but then rowed back. "The president of World Boxing does not think it was correct to have named a specific athlete" in the statement. The association wrote to the Algerian boxing authorities to apologise and acknowledge that "greater effort should have been made to avoid linking the policy to any individual".
Roya News
31-05-2025
- Sport
- Roya News
World Boxing forces gender test on Olympic champion Imane Khelif
Algerian Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif will be excluded from upcoming international competitions unless she undergoes a genetic sex test, according to a new policy announced by World Boxing on Friday. The sport's global governing body has introduced mandatory sex testing for all athletes aged 18 and older who wish to compete in World Boxing–sanctioned events. The new regulation requires a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test to determine an athlete's chromosomal sex at birth, with a focus on detecting the SRY gene, a marker for the Y chromosome. The policy was made public alongside a specific reference to Khelif, who won gold in the women's welterweight category at the Paris Olympics last year. Her performance sparked a wave of speculation and scrutiny over her eligibility, which has now culminated in formal action from World Boxing. 'Imane Khelif may not participate in the female category at … any World Boxing event until Imane Khelif undergoes genetic sex screening in accordance with World Boxing's rules and testing procedures,' the organization said in a statement. It also confirmed that the Algerian Boxing Federation had been officially notified of her ineligibility for the upcoming Eindhoven Box Cup unless the testing is completed. The 26-year-old, who is aiming for another gold medal at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, has not publicly responded to the latest decision. However, in a statement earlier this year, she defended her identity: 'For me, I see myself as a girl, just like any other girl. I was born a girl, raised as a girl, and have lived my entire life as one.' 'I have competed in many tournaments, including the Tokyo Olympics and other major competitions, as well as four World Championships,' she added. 'All of these took place before I started winning and earning titles. But once I began achieving success, the campaigns against me started.' World Boxing, which has been provisionally recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is set to oversee boxing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, has tasked national federations with implementing the new testing regime. Federations must certify the sex of each athlete entering competition by providing results from the PCR-based test. The situation has reignited global debate over gender eligibility in sports, with Khelif's case drawing significant attention. Her Olympic success, alongside that of Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, became a focal point of discussion during the Paris Games. Prominent political and public figures, including US President Donald Trump and businessman Elon Musk, publicly commented on the issue.
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Gender ruling is good for women's sport
World Athletics president Lord Coe has welcomed the UK Supreme Court's ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, saying it will benefit women's 68, says World Athletics has always been committed to 'protecting the integrity of women's sport' and hopes the ruling will bring clarity to who can International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines allow individual sports to decide on the best approach to balancing "inclusion and fairness".Athletics introduced an outright ban on transgender women taking part in women's events in told BBC Sport: "Well, of course, I welcome the ruling."First of all, I think it underpins common sense, but secondly, it removes a lot of legal uncertainty and interpretation."The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection, the promotion of the integrity of women's sport."It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling here." World Athletics introduced a swab test for elite athletes who wish to compete in the women's category at international events earlier this test looks for the SRY gene, which is "almost always on the male Y chromosome" and "is used as a highly accurate proxy for biological sex".Coe says the introduction of the test has been welcomed: "That was a very important step, and it's been broadly welcomed in sport and that's the position we're in."Let me be clear, the World Athletics policy is very clearly defined, and it is around elite female sport - for us that is absolutely vital."This is a very different issue, and it is really important that we have clarity at the highest level of sport."Inclusivity is a very important element in our sport, and we hold that sacrosanct, and our policies are not preventing transgender competitors from wanting to enjoy the physicality of sport."We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female."Several sports including athletics, cycling and aquatics have implemented outright bans on transgender women taking part in women's 2022, British Triathlon became the first British sporting body to establish an open category in which transgender athletes can sports have instead put in place eligibility this month, the English Football Association introduced stricter rules, but would still allow transgender women to continue to compete in the women's game as long as their testosterone was kept below a certain England, which is responsible for developing grassroots sport, said, external: "Sport England is not a regulator of sport and we do not run facilities."However, we do provide guidance on requirements around inclusion, safety and fairness to ensure that the needs of all groups are met."We are now considering what the ruling means for grassroots sports and clubs."In a statement to BBC Sport the England and Wales Cricket Board said it was "seeking legal guidance on possible implications of the Supreme Court ruling".
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas judge rejects temporary injunction seeking gender testing in NCAA women's sports
LUBBOCK, Texas − A Lubbock district judge on Tuesday denied a request for temporary injunction that would require the NCAA to impose genetic testing on athletes to determine their sex or have the organization and its affiliates remove the word "women" from women's competition. In the State of Texas v. the NCAA, filed in December in Lubbock County, state attorney general Ken Paxton says the NCAA has been "engaging in false, deceptive, and misleading practices by marketing sporting events as 'women's' competitions, only to then provide consumers with mixed sex competitions where biological males compete against biological females." The suit sought an injunction prohibiting the NCAA from "allowing biological males to compete in women's sporting events in Texas or involving Texas teams, or alternatively requiring the NCAA to stop marketing events as 'women's' when in fact they are mixed sex competitions." Advertisement In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel that about 510,000 athletes compete in the NCAA and he knows of fewer than 10 who are transgender. Judge Les Hatch denied the injunction in Lubbock's 237th District Court. "I'm not commenting about the NCAA policy, whether it was right or wrong at that time," Hatch told the plaintiffs' counsel, "but you've asked me to order SRY gene testing or remove the word 'women,' but I don't think we're there yet. I don't think SRY testing is going to accomplish with 100% certainty what you want it to. Or at least I didn't hear that it does." President Donald Trump, on Feb. 5, signed an executive order designed to keep transgender athletes out of women's sports. Advertisement Hatch made his ruling at the end of seven hours in the courtroom. Most of the proceedings centered on testimony from women who are recent former NCAA athletes who said they'd been adversely affected by having to compete — in one case, unknowingly — with or against a transgender athlete. Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines testified by Zoom from Wisconsin. Testifying in the courtroom were former San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser, her mother, Kim Slusser, former North Carolina State swimmer Kylee Alons and former Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler. Hatch said he'd anticipated hearing a lot about SRY gene testing and that he expected it to be "a science hearing as much as anything." "I do know the executive order does not set out what type of testing President Trump wants in his order," Hatch said. "Instead, he has ordered various people, agencies, to confer to figure out what is a proper methodology to determine male and female — because even the SRY gene, which was abandoned by the Olympics in 1996, because they tested 3,400 women, found eight to have the SRY gene, but then later, upon further investigation, found them to be more female than male due to androgen insensitivity." Advertisement He went on to say, "Before I started delving into this lawsuit, I figured there was a test out there that was black and white, that was 100%, but I think if that were the case, that would have been included in the executive order. It's just not there." The NCAA issued an updated policy on transgender athlete participation on Feb. 6, the day after the Trump executive order. Attorney Tom Riney, part of the defense team, pointed out that some of the women who testified as supporting witnesses for the state, had initially praised the NCAA policy change. The women who had done so said on the stand, however, they didn't immediately grasp the nuances and changed their opinion after reviewing it more carefully. The Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS), in a statement sent to media, says the new NCAA policy is "even more permissive than before.' It noted the NCAA has removed itself from eligibility monitoring, leaving it to schools. Swimmers, volleyball player Brooke Slusser testify Gaines, Wheeler and Alons told the court they felt angered and violated having to compete at NCAA swim meets against Lia Thomas, who is transgender. Advertisement Alons said she felt "on edge," "uncomfortable" and "vulnerable" sharing a locker room with Thomas and used a dirty, dimly lit storage closet to change into her competition swimsuit. Brooke Slusser said her senior season at San Jose State was disrupted by the presence of a transgender teammate. "Especially with the fact that I found out after sharing a locker room and a hotel room and an apartment with this person, I think it affected me a lot," Slusser said. "I felt betrayed." From left, Kim Slusser, Kaitlynn Wheeler and Brooke Slusser are shown outside a Lubbock, Texas, courtroom. They testified on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, as supporting witnesses in Texas v. the NCAA. A district judge denied the state's request for a temporary injunction. The hearing and Hatch's ruling came as March Madness, the NCAA Tournament for Division I basketball, was starting. The NCAA Tournament for Division II and Division III are already three rounds deep. Advertisement In his opening statement, Riney said the state's complaint made references to NCAA policy being problematic for "over a decade." "So for over a decade this has been going on," Riney said, "they filed a suit in December of 2024, and here we are after some of the (NCAA) tournaments have already started and it's somehow an emergency that they say demands injunctive relief." Riney circled back in his closing argument to the disruption an injunction would cause. "The tournaments have already started," he said. "How is this court going to implement that testing immediately? They've given you no evidence of what that test would require, who would be required to perform it, whether or not it's reliable, whether or not people could cheat on that. They're just asking basically to disrupt the tournament." Advertisement Further, Riney said, an injunction requiring references to women be removed presumed late changes would be needed to tournament tickets, logos and merchandise. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Judge denies temporary injunction in suit tied to transgender athletes
CNN
26-03-2025
- Sport
- CNN
World Athletics plans pre-clearance testing of female category track and field athletes
World Athletics plans to introduce biological pre-clearance tests for track and field athletes before they can compete in the female category, the sport's governing body announced Tuesday. These tests will screen athletes' genetic samples to determine whether they contain the SRY gene, or 'a genetic surrogate for a Y chromosome,' according to the organization. The decision comes following a World Athletics Council meeting where the council agreed to adopt multiple recommended conditions of 'eligibility in the female category.' World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the tests will be 'non-invasive' during a Tuesday press conference. 'Cheek swab or dry blood tests,' Coe said. 'It's along the lines of something that will be administered once in the career of an athlete, a female athlete.' Coe said the organization is still looking for a provider to carry out the tests. 'We will doggedly protect the female category, and we'll do whatever is necessary to do it, and we're not just talking about it,' Coe told reporters. 'Preserving the integrity of competition in the female category is a fundamental principle of the sport of athletics,' World Athletics said in a Tuesday press release. The organization added, 'The majority of stakeholders consulted last month on the proposed new eligibility conditions for the female category agreed that allowing only biological female athletes to compete in the female category was essential to maintaining fairness.' Coe reiterated this standpoint during the press conference. 'This we feel is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.' Transgender athletes' participation in women's sport has been a topical subject of late. President Donald Trump took executive action in February to deliver on a political issue central to his 2024 campaign: banning transgender women from competing in women's sports. Trump signed an executive order titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' surrounded by dozens of women and some young girls in athletic uniforms. 'With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over,' the president said. The order is two-pronged, leaning on compliance with Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive funding from the federal government, as well as federal engagement with the private sector.
