Taiwanese sports chiefs said on Wednesday that Olympic boxing champion Lin Yu-ting had withdrawn from a competition in the UK after her gender eligibility was called into question, but organizers said Lin Yu-ting had entered the event. He announced that he refuted that there was no such thing. Lin, who was embroiled in a gender controversy with Algerian boxer Imane Kherif at the Paris Olympics, was scheduled to compete in the World Boxing Cup final in Sheffield from Wednesday. The new competition will be organized by World Boxing, which was founded in 2023 and boasts around 55 member countries, including Taiwan.
It would have been Lin’s first international competition since Paris, but she withdrew after World Boxing questioned her eligibility, the Taiwan Sports Administration said in a statement.
“She is a woman, met all eligibility criteria, and competed in the women’s boxing competition (in Paris) where she won a gold medal,” the statement said.
“Unfortunately, because World Boxing is only recently established and its governing mechanisms are still being developed, there is a lack of clear regulatory policies from the IOC to ensure the protection of athletes’ rights,” the International Olympic Committee said. said.
“Furthermore, the World Boxing Medical Committee has not yet established robust confidentiality procedures to protect the medical information submitted by Taiwan regarding Lin Yuting.”
The statement said Lin, 28, had offered to undergo a “comprehensive on-site medical examination” in the UK, but World Boxing did not agree.
To avoid further “harm” to Lin, her coach and Taiwanese sports officials “have decided to proactively withdraw from this event.”
Lin arrived in the UK a few days ago and withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday, sports director Xie Chi-ying told AFP.
Safety first
However, World Boxing announced late Wednesday that current eligibility rules do not prevent Lu from participating in the World Boxing Cup.
A spokesperson for the organization said, “The selection decision was made by the national federation and no boxers were entered into the competition.”
The spokesperson added: “At World Boxing, we put our boxers first and the safety of our athletes is absolutely our top priority.”
“We have long recognized that gender clarity is an extremely complex issue with significant welfare concerns, and we have a strong commitment to our health committees to strengthen our policies. We have a dedicated working group dedicated to investigating all aspects of this area.”
Lin and Kerif were excluded from last year’s world championships, organized by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), but were allowed by the IOC to compete in Paris.
In a chaotic press conference, Umar Kremlev, head of the Kremlin-linked IBA, claimed that the two women had undergone “genetic tests that showed they were male.”
The IOC defended both boxers, with President Thomas Bach saying both were born and raised as women and have passports to that effect. Neither of them identify as transgender.
World Boxing is in talks with the IOC to take over Olympic competition management following toxic gender controversy.
Lin, who won the gold medal in the women’s final, was dubbed “Taiwan’s daughter” by both local media and President Lai Ching-de.
Taiwanese Prime Minister Cho Zheng-tai said Wednesday that the government will “actively strive to protect and secure” Lin’s rights to participate in future international competitions.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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