Second Olympic gender row boxer Lin Yu-ting into gold medal match
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting will compete for an Olympic gold medal for the first time after she defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman by unanimous decision in their women’s 57kg semi-final.
Lin has been subjected to a gender eligibility row after being banned by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from taking part in last year’s world championships. Despite the massive furore, she has remained focused on her goal at hand and will face Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the final.
The IBA, which is run by the Russian businessman Umar Kremlev and funded by Russian state oil company Gazprom, was stripped of recognition as boxing’s governing body and expelled from the Olympics over various concerns, including corruption and financial transparency.
On Tuesday, the Taiwan sports administration threatened the IBA with legal action due to its “continued publication of false information” regarding the eligibility of Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif.
After the defeat, Lin and Kahraman shook hands and the Turk briefly spoke with the Lin’s longtime coach, John Tseng Tzu-Chiang, before opening the ropes to help Lin leave the ring.
As she walked back to her side of the ring, however, she put two fingers together to form an ‘X’ and presented it to the different sides of the ring. It was a similar gesture to the one made by Lin’s defeated opponent, Svetlana Staneva, in the previous round, which some have interpreted as a reference to XX chromosomes.
Lin arrived to support and cheers from a near-full stadium, with cries of “Yu-Ting, Jia You” (“Come on, Yu-Ting”) ringing out throughout the bout. The crowd, however, was fair to both fighters. While Kahraman landed a number of blows early on, Lin controlled the early stages. She ended the first round with all five judges scoring it in her favour.
Lin began the second round with a series of blows and throughout the contest, the Taiwanese, a relatively tall and slender boxer at 5ft 9in, used her superior length brilliantly.
While Kahraman was more proactive, throwing more punches and trying to initiate closer contact, Lin danced around with confidence and ease, patiently waiting for her moments to counter Kahraman every single time she dropped her guard. It was a smooth, cool and confident performance.
As each round fell in her favour from every judge, she seemed to perform with an increasing amount of freedom. When she was declared the winner, Lin bowed to each side of the stadium before departing.
Lin, a two-time world champion, is competing in her second Olympics at 28 years old. Three years ago, at the Tokyo Games, she was defeated in the round of 16 by Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines, who showed that she could neutralise the length and range of Lin en route to her silver medal.
Petecio’s hope of bettering that medal came to an end on Wednesday night as she was defeated in the semi-final by Szeremeta, a 20-year-old who has established herself as a force this week in Paris. Szeremeta is Poland’s first boxing medallist at an Olympic Games since 1992.
Khelif has also reached the final in her weight category, the 66kg competition, where she will face Yang Liu of China.