Taiwanese Olympic gold medal boxer Lin Yu-ting has been allowed to return to compete at the Asian Boxing Championships after undergoing a gender eligibility review.
World boxing’s Olympic-level governing body announced the decision on Friday ahead of the Asian championships, which kick off in Mongolia on March 29.
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Algeria’s Lam and Imane Khalif won gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite international scrutiny and misunderstandings about the boxers’ gender. While both men met the qualification rules followed by the International Olympic Committee, which hosted the Paris championships at the time, the success of both fighters sparked a politically charged debate over those criteria.
World Boxing took over as the sport’s governing body last year and last August implemented a gender qualification policy requiring all boxers to undergo a one-time genetic test designed to identify the presence of the Y chromosome.
Lin has missed several international bouts since the World Boxing Association introduced the test last summer. World Boxing did not specify the results of Lin’s test but said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association had initiated an appeals process for one of its boxers following last year’s test.
“We recognize that this is a difficult time for boxers and the CTBA and we applaud the way they have handled the appeals process and their recognition of World Boxing’s requirements to ensure that its qualifications policies, which are designed to provide safety and sporting integrity, are properly implemented and adhered to,” World Boxing Secretary General Tom Dillon said in a statement.
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Khalif has also not competed in a World Boxing-sanctioned event since the testing was introduced, but has regularly expressed her desire to return to the sport at Olympic level. Khalif is also scheduled to make his professional boxing debut in April, but professional boxers can now compete in the Olympics.
Chromosome testing was common in Olympic sports during the 20th century but was largely abandoned in the 1990s because the tests could not easily resolve many ambiguities, collectively known as differences in sexual development.
World Boxing said that in addition to the appeals process, it provides additional analysis and evaluation for athletes carrying Y-chromosome genetic material who wish to compete in the women’s category, including genetic screening, hormonal profiles, anatomical examinations and further evaluation of endocrine profiles by medical experts.
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AP Boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing
