Nigerian boxer Blessing Oraekwe, who was due to compete in the 75kg category at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in the United Kingdom, has expressed heartbreak and frustration after being barred from participating in the global event due to delayed sex test results. Oraekwe, alongside two of her Nigerian teammates and the entire French women’s boxing team, was excluded from the competition following a controversial ruling under World Boxing’s new gender eligibility policy that requires all female athletes to undergo mandatory sex testing before competing.
The Nigerian star, who had been training and preparing to win gold for her country, described the situation as devastating, calling on World Boxing to provide financial compensation to cover the wasted expenses incurred by the Nigerian Boxing Federation, which had struggled to raise funds for the athletes’ journey. “It was heartbreaking for me because my plan was to come here and dominate in the ring and take the gold for my country. I know how hard I worked, and I know how difficult it was for Nigeria and the boxing federation to fund us. All I want to say is that World Boxing should compensate us because we have spent a lot,” Oraekwe said.
The controversy stems from World Boxing’s directive, issued in May, which stated that women competitors must undergo genetic sex testing to ensure fairness and safety. The international governing body said federations were informed on 21 August that test results could take up to 48 hours to process, and that any samples submitted after 1 September risked disqualification. Teams were told to plan their arrivals accordingly, especially if they needed to complete testing in the UK.
However, Nigerian officials explained that Oraekwe and her teammates took their tests immediately upon arrival in Leeds on Monday, but results were only returned on Thursday evening—long after the fighters had been disqualified. Similarly, the French Boxing Federation sent its five-member women’s team for tests in Leeds, but results were not delivered on time despite what the federation described as “guarantees” from World Boxing. In a strongly worded statement, France condemned the incident as a “profound injustice” and said its athletes had been “punished for a bureaucratic failure and a policy that was communicated far too late.” French boxer Maelys Richol told BBC Sport that the experience was “really upsetting” after nearly a year of preparation, adding, “Learning the day before that I could not compete was devastating.”
World Boxing rejected the criticism, insisting that federations were given sufficient notice and responsibility for testing arrangements. Acting secretary general Mike McAtee defended the policy, saying it was “100% the right policy” to ensure fairness and safety in women’s boxing. While acknowledging the frustration of athletes and federations, he emphasized that rules must be followed and promised that the organization would review its processes to better support athletes in the future.
The mandatory sex testing policy has sparked heated debate within the boxing community and beyond. In France, the tests are banned without a medical prescription, complicating compliance for French athletes. The issue comes amid broader controversy over gender eligibility in boxing, highlighted by the cases of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, both of whom were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after failing gender eligibility tests. However, both athletes went on to win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed them to compete under the simple criterion of being female on their passports.
Khelif has since appealed World Boxing’s new genetic sex test policy to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, raising questions about the legality and ethics of such regulations. Meanwhile, World Boxing has declined to confirm whether any athletes at this year’s competition have actually failed the tests.
The controversy comes at a sensitive time for the sport, which has undergone major restructuring after the IBA was stripped of its recognition by the IOC for governance failures. The IOC temporarily managed Olympic boxing in Paris before granting World Boxing provisional recognition in February 2024 as the new international governing body.
For athletes like Blessing Oraekwe, however, the immediate concern is the personal and financial loss caused by exclusion from the competition. Having trained relentlessly and traveled to the UK with hopes of raising her country’s flag on the podium, Oraekwe says her dream was shattered not by her opponent in the ring, but by what she describes as an unfair and poorly executed policy.
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