Taiwanese boxer in Olympics gender row wins to guarantee medal

PARIS: Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting became the second fighter at the centre of a Paris Olympics gender row to guarantee herself a medal after convincingly winning her quarter-final on Sunday.

Lin, who together with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is at the centre of a storm over their eligibility, defeated Bulgaria´s Svetlana Staneva on a unanimous points decision to reach the semi-finals of the women´s 57kg category.

With her second win of the tournament, the 28-year-old Lin is certain to win a medal because losing semi-finalists in the boxing take home bronze. After a scrappy and tetchy fight, the 34-year-old Staneva made an X sign with her fingers to the crowd and, clearly angry, declined to speak to reporters. But her coach Borislav Georgiev held a piece of paper with the words: “I´m XX. Save woman sport.”

In most cases, males have both an X and Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. Khelif, who boxes again on Tuesday, is also guaranteed at least bronze after winning her quarter-final in the women´s 66kg division. Khelif and Lin were disqualified from last year´s world championships after failing gender eligibility tests, but were cleared to box in the French capital.

They also competed at the Tokyo Games in 2021 but did not win medals. Neither boxer is known to identify as transgender and the exact nature of the test they failed previously is unclear.