Femininity tests at the Olympics: Sports Minister Marina Ferrari regrets “a step backwards”

It’s a decision that will necessarily cause a lot of talk. This Thursday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the return of genetic testing of femininity for certain sports from the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

It is “a step backwards”, lamented this Friday the Minister of Sports Marina Ferrari, who expressed her “great concern” about this decision in a statement sent to the press. “We are opposed to the generalization of genetic tests which raises numerous ethical, legal and medical questions, particularly with regard to French legislation on bioethics. »

This new policy, the first major measure by Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry since her election a year ago at the head of the Olympic body, will apply from the 2028 Olympics and “is not retroactive”.

On Thursday, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) “took note” of this decision, while already wondering about the step backwards taken, thirty years after the abandonment of these tests. These tests “raise major ethical and scientific questions”, estimated the CNOSF, not to mention the “practical difficulties” in France where these tests are not authorized.

Among the discipline concerned, boxing, some practitioners of which, including the Algerian Olympic champion Imane Khelif, had been the subject of a violent campaign of denigration and cyberharassment from conspiratorial circles, led by very influential personalities, during the Paris 2024 Games.