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Gender-row boxer Lin wins gold in first event since Paris Olympics / Photo: MOHD RASFAN - AFP
Gender-row boxer Lin wins gold in first event since Paris Olympics
Taiwanese Olympic boxing champion Lin Yu-ting won gold on her return to the ring following the gender row that exploded at the 2024 Paris Games, her coach told AFP Thursday.
Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif were at the centre of a storm in Paris where they won Olympic titles in separate weight classes.
Lin won gold in the 60kg category on Wednesday at Taiwan's National Games in her first event since the Olympics.
A photo posted on Lin's Facebook Stories showed the boxer smiling and holding a gold medal.
"It was good. We just did the preparations we were supposed to do," her coach Tseng Tzu-chiang said, confirming it was Lin's first official event since Paris.
Lin had planned to compete at the world championships in Liverpool in September and agreed to undergo a compulsory genetic sex test, Tseng said.
Despite submitting her results to World Boxing, Tseng said Lin had not yet received a response, putting on hold her participation in future international competitions.
"It depends on whether the result comes out. If it does, there will be many international events we can take part in," Tseng said.
Under World Boxing's newly introduced policy, fighters over 18 who want to participate in the women's category need to take a one-off PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or medical equivalent genetic test.
Twelve boxers were reportedly barred from competing in Liverpool, including the five-member women's team from France, after they missed the deadline for test results to be submitted.
Lin and Khelif were excluded from the International Boxing Association's (IBA) 2023 world championships after that organisation said they had failed eligibility tests.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stepped in to oversee boxing at the Paris Games, allowed them both to compete, saying they had been victims of "a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA". Both went on to win gold medals.
During the Games both fighters were subjected to attacks on social media, rumours about their biological sex and disinformation.
The IOC leapt to their defence, saying they were born and raised as women, and have passports attesting to that.
A.Desjardins--SMC
