Boxer Lin Yu-ting has won her semifinal bout—clearing a path to clinch Olympic gold after facing the same gender scrutiny as fellow boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria.
Lin, a 28-year-old featherweight from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan’s Olympic delegation), defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey on Wednesday evening. She will move on to face Poland’s Julia Szemerata in the final match on Saturday.
Like Khelif, Lin, who was born female, was previously barred from competing by the Russian-led International Boxing Association after failing to pass an unspecified gender test. However, Lin and Khelif did qualify for the Olympics, managed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which does not recognize the IBA.
ADVERTISEMENT
The IOC has consistently defended Lin and Khelif’s participation in the games.
“We have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women,” said IOC President Thomas Bach at a press conference last week, where he also condemned the vitriol towards the women as “unacceptable.”
Although Khelif has spoken out against the “bullying” she has received since the scandal began, Lin has mostly remained quiet.
However, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has voiced support for the boxer, sharing a photo and writing on social media: “When I met boxer Lin Yu-ting, I saw an athlete who is fearless in the face of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring.”
Much of the scrutiny on the two boxers has centered around Khelif, who won an early bout against Italy’s Angela Carini, who quit 46 seconds into the match.
Shortly after the match, the IBA issued a press release detailing Lin and Khelif’s disqualifications from the 2023 World Championships. The organization then held a chaotic press conference on Monday where officials expressed safety concerns about letting the two boxers compete.
Critics have also noted that the IBA, which is dominated by its Russian President Umar Kremlev, only disqualified Khelif in 2023, shortly after she won a bout against Russian boxer Azalia Amineva—who was undefeated before the fight.
The IBA has refused to release detailed information about what kind of test disqualified Lin and Khelif. The initial IBA statement said the boxers “did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test.”
However, at the press conference on Monday, Kremlev directly contradicted this: “These testing [sic] show that they have a high level of testosterone,” he said through a translator. “Like men. They have men’s level of testosterone.”
Later statements and documents from the organization claimed to show that tests found the women do not have two X chromosomes. Some women, such as those with Swyer syndrome, are born with XY chromosomes.
