Lin Yu-ting Cleared to Compete in Boxing After Sex Eligibility Review

Olympic gold medal-winning boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has been cleared to return to competition at the Asian Boxing Championships following a review of her sex eligibility.

World Boxing, the sport’s Olympic-level governing body, announced its decision before the Asian championships, which begin March 29 in Mongolia.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria won gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics amid international scrutiny and misconceptions over both boxers’ sex.

While both met the eligibility rules followed at the time by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which ran the Paris tournament, the two fighters’ success led to a politically charged debate over those standards.

World Boxing took over as the sport’s 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.

Lin has been absent from several international competitions since World Boxing introduced the test last summer.

“We recognise that this has been a difficult period for the boxer and the CTBA and appreciate the way they have approached the appeal process and their acknowledgement of World Boxing’s requirement to ensure that its eligibility policy, which is designed to deliver safety and sporting integrity, has been correctly implemented and followed,” World Boxing secretary-general Tom Dielen said in a statement.

Taiwan’s boxing association described the decision as a “tremendous relief” for Lin.

“We are pleased that World Boxing’s independent medical experts thoroughly reviewed all evidence and confirmed that she has been female since birth,” it said in a statement.

Lin “will make her highly anticipated return to the ring at the Asian Boxing Championships”, the statement said.