Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting won her opening match in the women’s 57kg category at the Paris Olympics amid the gender row that has engulfed the Games.
Top seed Lin – who lost her bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria but has been cleared to compete in France – beat Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova to reach the quarter-finals, using her height and range to dictate the fight.
The 28-year-old is one of two boxers, alongside Algeria’s Imane Khelif, to have been disqualified from last year’s World Championships but permitted to take part in these Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopting different criteria to the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Khelif won her round-of-16 clash in the women’s 66kg category in just 46 seconds on Thursday after her opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, quit, saying: “I preferred to stop for my health.”
The IOC is running the boxing tournament in Paris after the IBA was stripped of its status as the global governing body for boxing last year because it failed to complete reforms on governance, finance and ethical issues.
The IOC said in a statement: “These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. They were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”
The IBA had earlier criticised the IOC for its “inconsistencies in eligibility”.
“Both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, post testing, did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events,” said an IBA statement. “The urgent nature of the decision (to disqualify the boxers) was justified, as the safety of our boxers is our top priority.”
A tearful Carini said after Thursday’s fight: “It hurt so much. I am heartbroken. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior, but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.
“After the second blow, and after years of experience in the ring and a lifetime of fighting, I felt extreme pain in my nose.”
She added of Khelif: “I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn’t judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.”
Khelif will face Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamo in the 66kg quarter-finals on Saturday, with victory guaranteeing her an Olympic medal, as both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals in the Olympics.
Analysis: Will Khelif and Lin win medals?
Khelif and Lin have been boxing on the international circuit for a number of years.
Khelif is a previous Olympian. She boxed at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She won her first bout there but came away without a medal after losing to Ireland’s Kellie Harrington, the eventual champion, in the quarter-final.
She has become a top-level contender, reaching the final of the World Championships in 2022. Amy Broadhurst clearly outboxed her then to win the gold medal.
The following year at the World Championships in India she also reached the final. Notably she was permitted to box four times at that tournament before the IBA administered its gender eligibility test and disqualified her.
Khelif did not have a reputation as a power puncher on the amateur scene so it was all the more surprising to see her finish the Carini bout in under a minute.
Lin has an even longer track record in top-class amateur boxing. At the World Championships in 2016 she lost a tight bout to British star Nicola Adams. She medalled at every Worlds afterwards until 2023 when she would have taken bronze until the IBA also disqualified her for failing a gender eligibility test. She too was permitted to box several times at that tournament before being expelled.
Lin has been highly effective at these major tournaments, but has traded wins and losses with other elite operators. In the last two years Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu, Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova and Olympic champion Sena Irie have all beaten her.
Analysis: ‘Issue is not going away from the Olympics’
Rob Harris, Sky News Sports Correspondent:
For days the very staging of this 66kg opening-round fight had been questioned but it also collided with a long-running dispute between the International Olympic Committee and the International Boxing Association.
Is it fair to fear being put in danger by someone far stronger in a combat sport?
Is it fair to exclude someone female at birth who has gone through no treatment to adjust testosterone levels that would gain a competitive advantage?
Mark Adams, of the IOC, said: “This involves real people and we’re talking about real people’s lives here.
“They have competed and they continue to compete in the women’s competition. They have lost and they’ve won against other women throughout, over the years.
“And by the way, this isn’t – we should make this absolutely clear for everyone – this is not a transgender issue.”
But the issue is not going away from the Olympics however much its leadership is asking everyone to “dial it down”.
Read Rob’s analysis in full on the Sky News website
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Source : Sky Sports
