Taiwan’s gender row boxer Lin takes bronze medal at Asian championships
Lin Yu-ting wins a medal in her first competitive fight since a gender eligibility row overshadowed her Olympic win.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting has won a bronze medal at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in her first competition since a gender-eligibility row overshadowed her Olympic gold medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Games.
The 30-year-old, who stepped up to the 60kg division after winning Olympic gold in the 57kg category, lost to North Korea’s Won Un Gyong in the semifinals on Monday to finish with a bronze.
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“After all, this is our first time competing in the 60kg division after the Olympics,” Lin’s coach Tseng Tzu-chiang told Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
“The opponents’ skills, strategies and styles are all new to us, so we used this opportunity to observe and learn.”
Lin opted not to compete in the world championships last year after the governing body, World Boxing, announced that women boxers would have to undergo mandatory sex testing as part of a new eligibility policy.
The policy was introduced a year after Lin and Algerian Imane Khelif both won gold in Paris amid a gender dispute.
Last month, Lin was cleared to compete in the female category by the World Boxing following an appeal from Taiwan’s federation, paving the way for her return at the Asian championships in Mongolia.
Tseng said the boxer had her sights set on competing at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, later this year.
“Yu-ting hasn’t competed in a long time, and it was evident that her physical condition wasn’t quite up to par. Losing this time isn’t a bad thing; at least there’s room for improvement and a clear path forward,” he added.
Transgender female athletes are now excluded from women’s events at the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to a new eligibility policy that aligns with United States President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports in advance of the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the IOC said last month, noting this is to be determined by a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career.
