Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting, the protagonist of one of the biggest debates of the last Olympic Games in Paris, has returned to the ring and has done so in a dazzling way. In just 94 seconds, the Olympic champion knocked down her opponent, the young university student Pan Yan-fei, in the debut of the Taiwan National Games.
The 29-year-old had not competed officially since her gold medal in Paris 2024, where her participation generated a strong controversy. A year earlier, Lin had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing gender eligibility controls, a decision that marked her career and ignited the debate about biological limits in women’s sport.
These rules keep both Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif out of the international circuit
Since August, World Boxing has imposed mandatory genetic testing on all boxers over the age of 18 to determine their eligibility. These rules keep both Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif, an Olympic welterweight champion, out of the international circuit. She has taken legal action in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the new regulations.
However, Lin has been able to compete again thanks to a domestic exception: the regulations of the Taiwan National Games, which do not include these tests, allowed her to register in the 60-kilogram category. Her return was brief but forceful: the referee stopped the fight when Pan’s coach threw in the towel after several direct blows to the head that left his pupil breathless. The 19-year-old was treated immediately and is in a stable condition.
His coach, Tseng Tzu-chiang, described the fight as “routine” and avoided commenting on regulatory issues
Far from entering into the controversy, Lin simply said that he is still “adjusting to the weight of 60 kilos”. His coach, Tseng Tzu-chiang, described the fight as “routine” and avoided commenting on regulatory issues.
With this triumph, Lin won her seventh consecutive title in the women’s national championship, while the boxing world is once again divided between those who defend her right to compete and those who call for stricter biological criteria. All this with the Los Angeles 2028 Games already on the horizon, where both Lin and Khelif hope to defend their gold again in the midst of a debate that promises to continue to rage.
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