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At the heart, like the Algerian Imane Khelif, of a controversy around gender during the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Taiwanese Olympic champion Lin Yu-ting saw the new international World Boxing federation question her eligibility to fight against women .
Taiwanese Olympic boxing champion Lin Yu-ting has withdrawn from an international competition in Britain after the organizer questioned her gender eligibility, Taiwanese sports authorities announced on Wednesday.
Lin, as well as Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, also crowned Olympic champion in Paris, had been the target of a hate campaign against the backdrop of a dispute between the IOC, which had authorized them to compete, and the International Boxing Federation (IBA ).
World Boxing has questioned his eligibility to fight against women
At the origin of this controversy, the IBA’s decision to exclude Lin and Khelif from the world championships in New Delhi in March 2023 on the grounds, according to the IBA, that they had failed a test intended to establish their feminine gender. The IBA, a body which is no longer recognized by the Olympic world, has always refused to specify what type of test had been carried out.
Lin, who had not returned to a ring since Paris, was to participate from Wednesday in the finals of the Boxing World Cup in Sheffield, a competition organized by World Boxing, a new competing organization of the IBA founded in 2023 , which has around 55 members, including Taiwan. But she withdrew after World Boxing questioned her eligibility to fight against women, Taiwan’s sports authorities said in a statement.
“She is a woman, meets all eligibility criteria and successfully participated in the women’s boxing event (in Paris), winning a gold medal,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, given that World Boxing has just been created (…) it does not have the clear regulatory policies of the IOC (International Olympic Committee, Editor’s note) which guarantee the protection of the rights of athletes,” the press release continues.
Lin had offered to undergo a “full on-site medical examination” in Britain, but World Boxing did not accept, according to the statement. To prevent Lin from suffering further “harm”, his coach and Taiwanese sports officials “decided to proactively withdraw from this event”.
Taiwanese Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai said Wednesday that the government would “actively strive to protect and guarantee” Lin’s rights to participate in future international competitions. Neither World Boxing nor England Boxing, the body which governs amateur boxing in England, immediately responded to requests from AFP.