She was a gold medalist at the Paris Olympics, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting withdraws from a competition where her gender was questioned

Taiwanese Olympic boxing champion Lin Yu-ting has withdrawn from an international competition in Britain after the organizer questioned her gender eligibility, Taiwanese sports authorities announced Wednesday (November 27).

“She is a woman, meets all the eligibility criteria and successfully participated in the women's boxing event (in Paris), winning a gold medal,” said the Taiwanese federation in a press release.

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 organization founded in 2023 intended to restore credibility to world amateur boxing, after the break between the IBA (International Boxing Federation) and the IOC.

“World Boxing's current eligibility policy does not prevent Lin Yu-ting from participating in the Boxing World Cup,” a World Boxing spokesperson responded in the afternoon, seeming to pass the blame on Lin Yu-Ting's package to the Taiwan federation. “Selection decisions are made by the national federations and the boxer was not registered for this event,” he added.

The Taiwan Federation, for its part, accuses World Boxing of being responsible for the package of its boxer: “Unfortunately, given that World Boxing has just been created […] it does not have clear regulatory policies from the IOC (International Olympic Committee, Editor's note) which guarantee the protection of the rights of athletes,” the press release indicates.

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”.

A “complex question”

In its response, World Boxing assures that “boxers come first and (that) the safety of athletes is absolutely paramount”. “We have recognized for some time that gender clarification is an extremely complex issue that raises important welfare questions and our medical committee has a dedicated working group committed to reviewing all aspects of this area so that we can strengthen our policy,” continued the spokesperson for the body.

Lin, like the 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 ).

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.