Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting won bronze at the Asian Boxing Championships on Monday, in her first competition since a controversy over her gender eligibility overshadowed her Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
Lin chose not to compete in last year’s World Championships after the World Boxing Federation announced that female boxers would have to undergo mandatory sex testing as part of a new eligibility policy.
The policy was introduced a year after Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif won gold in Paris amid a row over gender.
Last month, Lin was cleared to compete in the women’s category by the World Boxing Federation following an appeal by the Taiwanese federation, paving the way for her return at the Asian Championships in Mongolia.
The 30-year-old athlete, who moved up to the 60 kg category after winning Olympic gold in the 57 kg category, lost to North Korean Won Un Gyong in the semifinals, ending with the bronze medal.
“After all, this is our first competition in the 60 kg category 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 took this opportunity to observe and learn.”
Tseng said Lin has her sights set on the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, later this year.
“Yu-ting hasn’t competed for a long time and it was clear that his physical condition was not at its peak. Losing this time is not a bad thing; at least there is room for improvement and a clear path forward,” he added.
