This week, while reviewing the international press, at SportsIn we were struck by a reflection made by journalist Alan Abrahamson in ‘3 Wire Sports‘ about the case of Chinese Taipei boxer Yu-Ting Lin and a question that makes people uncomfortable. This is not a debate built on perceptions or sensitivities, but on a concrete fact: a laboratory result presented at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2023 stating that “chromosomal analysis reveals a male karyotype”. In other words, XY. From that point on, the discussion should be technical, even cold. But it is not.

The problem begins when that data, which in any other context would be decisive, stops being so the moment it comes into contact with the sports structure. Because that is when exceptions, interpretations and, above all, silence appear (letting it slide, dodging the issue…). How does that result fit with participation in the female category? On what grounds is that eligibility sustained? These are basic questions that, however, do not find a clear answer. Perhaps, if Yu-Ting Lin were not achieving such strong results, this debate would not even exist and nothing would have been done about it.

Kirsty Coventry has shed light on this issue through science

The International Olympic Committee, with Kirsty Coventry leading the process, has recently modified its approach and has returned to placing biological sex at the centre as the reference point. A significant change after years in which the discourse had shifted towards concepts more linked to gender. This shift should bring coherence to the system, as it introduces measurable variables: chromosomes, hormonal levels, competitive advantages… In short, science applied to sport.

However, that coherence breaks down when those same criteria are not applied uniformly. World Boxing validates the participation, the federations support it, but no one explains why. It is not detailed whether there is a specific condition that justifies the exception, nor is it clarified how that laboratory result is interpreted within the regulatory framework. And it is in that void where distrust and lack of coherence grow. Even more so when World Boxing is fighting to keep its sport in the Olympic programme. Added to transparency and financial issues, this matter further undermines its already fragile credibility.

The problem is not a proper name. It is not Yu-Ting Lin, not at all. In the end, she is a victim of this entire nonsensical situation, as are other transgender female athletes who for the past two years have been living in a distressing situation that does not help their full integration into society as it should.

Normalising everything for future generations

Another problem is the precedent it creates, allowing for widely differing opinions, because when rules cease to be transparent, they cease to be rules and become decisions. And when sport enters that territory, it loses one of its fundamental pillars: equal conditions. And here again, female participants are the ones affected. And seeing all this, what does a transgender girl who loves sport think? That she has no place? That she will be judged wherever she goes? The sooner it is normalised and accepted that a transgender woman, at a professional sporting level, must compete according to what biology dictates, the better. Another matter is when it is not professional and no one’s health is at risk…

Boxing, more than other sports, is built precisely on an idea of biological precision and strength to avoid putting anyone’s health at risk. That is why there are weight categories, clear limits, controlled differences. Not out of tradition, but out of competitive necessity. That is why the question is not uncomfortable, but essential: who is the female category defined for? Without a clear answer, the system stops sustaining itself.