Lin Yu-ting, boxer embroiled in gender controversy, wins Olympic gold medal in 57kg women’s final

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PARIS — Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting won the gold medal in 57kg women’s boxing finals, the second fighter in as many days to win an Olympic title after being embroiled in a controversy over her gender.

Lin defeated Poland’s Julia Szeremeta one day after Algeria’s Imane Khelif won gold in the 66kg division.

Lin’s size and reach were the difference in the gold medal match. Her length gave Szeremeta fits as the taller Lin kept Szeremeta at distance with jabs and nimble footwork on the outside. The Chinese Taipei boxer won all three rounds on all five judges’ scorecards to secure the gold.

The International Boxing Association disqualified both Lin and Khelif from the 2023 world championship after the IBA claimed tests administered to both fighters revealed they had XY chromosomes. The tests have not been made public.

The International Olympic Committee, however, has said throughout these Games that it does not trust the IBA or the tests administered to Lin or Khelif.

Numerous opportunists and politicians likened women’s participation as a transgender issue. However, both fighters have been female since birth and have always fought as females. They have never identified as men.

“This is not a transgender case,” Mark Adams of the IOC declared repeatedly. “There has been some confusion that this is a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case. On that there is consensus. Scientifically this is not a man fighting a woman.”

It is possible for someone to be born with female genitalia and have XY chromosomes. Whether that is fair for competition is something organizing bodies must sort through.

Whether that is the case with these fighters is not known, but that would be the far more likely explanation if it is true. That doesn’t stir up passions, though, like declaring this a transgender issue.

Khelif addressed the situation Friday after her victory, firmly stating that she is and always has been a woman.

“As for whether I qualify or not, or whether I am a woman or not, I am fully qualified to take part in this competition,” Khelif said.

“I am a woman like any other woman,” she continued. “I was born a woman. I’ve lived as a woman. I’ve competed as a woman. There is no doubt about that.”

Both women have fought on the international circuit for years, including the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Neither has been dominant before this.

The IOC was slow to make the case that the women deserved to be able to fight. It previously stripped the IBA of its ability to oversee boxing at the Olympics due to corruption and judging controversies. Additionally, the IBA has significant ties to Russia, which is also banned from the Olympics and is not above sowing discord in the Paris Games.

That does not mean the IBA’s tests are necessarily wrong; there is just not much information to go on.