Lin Yu-ting wins gold in 57kg bout at 2024 Paris Olympic Games

Controversial Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting has swept the Paris Olympic boxing competition with an emphatic and undefeated record to win the women’s gold medal in the 57kg class.

Controversial Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting has swept the Paris Olympic boxing competition with an emphatic and undefeated record to win the women’s gold medal in the 57kg class on Saturday night at Roland Garros.

Much taller, more powerful, and with a lethal reach, Lin, the second boxer accused of having XY chromosomes, continued a demolition of the Olympic competition.

This time Lin claimed the prized scalp of Polish champion Julia Szeremeta, who wore a skirt into the ring, perhaps as a statement about femininity.

And so after 12 days of bitterness, denial, and toxic fingerpointing, the women’s boxing has come to this.

Two nights, two victors, two boxers with genetic male chromosomes XY and two Paris Olympic gold medals.

Yu Ting-Lin was one of two controversial boxers competing. Picture: Getty Images

Lin, a southpaw, has spent the past 12 days of the Games dismantling a group of protesting women, Uzbeki fighter Sitora Turdibekova, Bulgarian Svetlana Kamenova and then Turkish fighter Esra Yildiz, all by unanimous points decisions.

If the storyline sounds familiar it is. Only 24 hours earlier Imane Khelif was swept triumphantly onto the shoulders of the Algerian officials having dispatched without too much trouble the world champion Liu Yang of China to hold aloft the glittering gold medal.

It is telling that not once has a judge scored against any of the Olympic rounds fought by Lin or Khelif, exposing an uncomfortable truth for the International Olympic Committee that having a male genetic blueprint may confer a performance advantage.

Not that the IOC was listening, or even watching. The IOC president Thomas Bach claimed to have a busy itinerary keeping him well away from being ringside.

Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting reacts after beating Poland's Julia Szeremeta in the women's 57kg final. Picture: AFP

Both Lin and Khelif have male XY chromosomes according to the International Boxing Association which banned them from competition in 2023.

But the IOC, in an ideological pursuit of “inclusion” has preferred to allow the two boxers to compete, claiming they were women on their passports, rather than try to protect the women’s category and address serious safety concerns.

Bach has also accused the IBA of “defamation” and questionable political motives in suspending the two.

The controversy around so called XY boxers - who often present with a more outward looking female appearance, usually until puberty when huge surges of testosterone are released by internal testes - started in boxing in 2016.

A boxer then was believed to be XY but there was no testing or rules in place although at the Rio Olympics three XY runners swept the 800m podium at the track and field.

Gold Medallist Yu Ting-Lin shows off her new medal. Picture: Getty Images

By 2022 boxing officials were highly concerned about the power of four female boxers and the medical commission ordered genetic blood tests. The results showed two of the boxers were XX, confirming they were female, but said the other two, Lin and Khelif were XY.

A further test at the 2023 world championships on the two confirmed the earlier testing, leading to the unsavoury situation at the Games where female competitors believe they are at a distinct performance disadvantage.

Khelif insists to be a woman and that the IBA ‘’hated her”. Lin’s coach has also spoken about believing his boxer to be a girl from early school years.

Meanwhile the IOC, which was told of the IBA XY DNA results a year ago, has refused to conduct any further testing or change its rules about who is eligible to compete in the women’s category. Under the IOC rules anybody who identifies as a woman - trans athletes or XY athletes - are all eligible.

Originally published as Lin Yu-ting wins gold in 57kg bout at 2024 Paris Olympic Games