Taiwan Olympic champ involved in gender debate wins first bout at Asian titles

[AP Photo]

Lin Yu-ting comfortably won her first international bout since the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Asian championships yesterday after World Boxing said she passed a gene test.

Taiwan’s first Olympic boxing champion beat Thananya Somnuek of Thailand 5-0 in the round of 16 in the 60-kilogram division. That earned Lin a quarterfinal against division favorite Ayaka Taguchi of Japan.

The 30-year-old Lin wasn’t cleared to compete at the Asian titles until less than two weeks ago.

World Boxing took over as the sport’s Olympic-level governing body last year, and it implemented a sex eligibility policy last August requiring all fighters to take a one-time genetic test designed to identify the presence of a Y chromosome.

Two-time world champion Lin qualified for the Asian championships in December by defeating compatriot Wu Shih-yi, a 60kg bronze medalist at the Paris Olympics.

But World Boxing didn’t confirm Lin’s eligibility until March 19, and the statement referred to her competing in only World Boxing competitions.

It is not clear whether Lin will have to undergo further gene testing if she wants to compete again at the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee announced last week new rules banning transgender athletes and a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria won gold medals at Paris amid international scrutiny and misconceptions over both boxers’ sex. While both met the eligibility rules followed at the time by the IOC, which ran the Paris tournament, the two fighters’ success sparked a politically charged debate over those standards. MDT/AP