April 7 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting took bronze at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships on Monday in her first competition since a gender-eligibility row overshadowed her Olympic gold medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Games.
Lin opted not to compete in the world championships last year after governing body World Boxing announced that women boxers would have to undergo mandatory sex testing as part of a new eligibility policy.
The policy was introduced a year after Lin and Algerian Imane Khelif both won gold in Paris amid a gender dispute.
Last month, Lin was cleared to compete in the female category by World Boxing following an appeal from Taiwan’s federation, paving the way for her return at the Asian championships in Mongolia.
The 30-year-old, who stepped up to the 60kg division after winning Olympic gold at 57kg, lost to North Korea’s Won Un Gyong in the semi-finals on Monday to finish with a bronze medal.
“After all, this is our first time competing in the 60kg division after the Olympics,” Lin’s coach Tseng Tzu-chiang told Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
“The opponents’ skills, strategies and styles are all new to us, so we used this opportunity to observe and learn.”
Tseng said Lin had her sights set on competing at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan later this year.
“Yu-ting hasn’t competed in a long time, and it was evident that her physical condition wasn’t quite up to par. Losing this time isn’t a bad thing; at least there’s room for improvement and a clear path forward,” he added.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
