Taiwan gender-row boxer Lin Yu-ting one win from Asian Games gold
Lin Yu-ting, an Olympic champion from Taiwan, advanced to the final of the women’s 60kg boxing class at the Asian Games, ensuring at least a silver medal despite a recent gender controversy.
NAGOYA: Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting, the Olympic champion who found herself embroiled in a major gender row at Paris 2024, guaranteed herself at least a silver medal at the Asian Games on Wednesday.
Lin outclassed Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan 5-0 in the women’s 60kg class in Nagoya to surge into the final, putting her one win from a second Asian Games gold.
The 30-year-old thanked the medical team afterwards for treating the cut to her nose she suffered in the quarter-finals on Monday.
“After the quarter-finals, many doctors helped treat my wounds so that I didn’t have to worry,” Lin told reporters.
She faces China’s Yang Chengyu in Friday’s gold-medal showdown.
Lin told AFP before the Games that she had considered retiring after the Paris Olympics but wanted to carry on fighting in part to defy those who questioned her eligibility.
Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria were disqualified from the 2023 world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after the organization said they failed unspecified gender eligibility tests.
However, the IOC allowed them to compete in Paris, saying they were victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision” by the widely discredited IBA. Both went on to win gold.
Lin triumphed at 57kg in the French capital but has stepped up a weight division for the Asian Games in Japan.
She won gold in the 57kg class at the last Asian Games, in China’s Hangzhou in 2023.