Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting has found herself in the eye of a storm after a gender eligibility debate jolted the Paris Olympics 2024.
Who is Lin Yu-ting?
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Lin Yu-ting, the three-time world championships medallist, will kick off her Paris Olympics campaign today against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in the 57-kilogram category. Lin Yu-ting made her debut at the amateur championship level in the Asian Championships, held in Vietnam in 2017. Lin started boxing at middle school in Taipei back in 2008.
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At the age of 21, Lin Yu-ting bagged a gold medal at the Asian Championships, held in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017. She beat Vietnam’s Le Thi Bang in the bantamweight division to earn the prized medal.
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A year later, Lin Yu-ting secured a bantamweight gold medal. She has also been a gold medalist at the 2019 Asian Championships, the 2022 Asian Games and the 2022 World Championships. She is a two-time Asian Games medallist (featherweight gold 2023, flyweight bronze 2018) as well. Victory at the Asian Games ensured her participation in the Paris Olympics. She entered the Paris Olympics as the top-seeded boxer in the women’s 57kg featherweight category. This earned her a first-round bye ahead of the bout against Sitora Turdibekova.
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Lin Yu-ting currently holds the third rank in the Elite Women 54-kg feather global standings. The 28-year-old made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. At the Tokyo games, she conceded a defeat at the hands of Filipino amateur boxer Nesthy Petecio in the featherweight round of 16.
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In 2023, Lin Yu‑ting and Imane Khelif were disqualified from the 2023 women’s world championships having failed an unspecified gender eligibility test. The governing body decided to strip Lin of a bronze medal last year because it claimed that the boxer had failed to meet certain unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.