Olympics boxer Lin Yu-ting at centre of gender sex row wins gold medal
Lin Yu-ting has beaten Julia Szeremeta by unanimous decision to win the gold medal in the featherweight boxing category at the Paris Olympics after becoming embroiled in a row over gender tests
Lin Yu-ting has won the gold medal in the featherweight category at the Paris Olympics after beating Poland's Julia Szeremeta by unanimous decision.
Along with Algeria's Imane Khelif, who also won a gold medal, Lin had been at the centre of a storm around gender tests. The tests were conducted by the disgraced International Boxing Association, which has refused to provide details.
Both have been allowed to compete at the Olympics, with the boxing events run by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 because of concerns over its finances, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging.
Lin proved to be too classy, too long and too awkward for Szeremeta and punched the canvas in celebration before bowing to the cheering crowd after the referee raised her arm to signal victory for the Taiwanese boxer.
Szeremeta embraced Lin after the result was confirmed, with the Taiwanese athlete taking her fourth victory by unanimous decision from four in the competition.
The 28-year-old dominated in truth, with her opponent being picked off having continued her unusual technique of keeping her hands low. Szeremeta is an unexpected silver medallist in this event and she showed no signs of protest against the result.
Lin is a two-time world champion and has been competing in her second Olympics. Three years ago, at the Tokyo Games, Lin was defeated in the round of 16 by Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines, who went on to win silver.
Both Lin and Khelif have been heavily backed by the IOC amid the storm around their eligibility. President Thomas Bach insisted that both fighters had every right to be competing in Paris.
Bach said: "We will not take part in politically motivated, sometimes politically motivated cultural war. And allow me to say that what is going on in this context in the social media, with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse and fuelled by this agenda is a totally unacceptable.
"We are talking about women's boxing. And we have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women. Who have passports as women. And who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.
"What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman. And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific based new definition of who is a woman. And how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman. If they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen. We are ready to look into it."
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