The second boxer at the centre of the Olympics gender row has guaranteed herself a medal.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting defeated her opponent, Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva, via a unanimous decision this morning to book a place in the semi-finals in Paris and a minimum joint third place.
Yu-Ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif were banned from International Boxing Association World Championships last year for reportedly failing a gender test.
However, both have been cleared to fight in the female category by the IOC in the French capital after the Russian-led IBA was stripped of the right to run boxing at the Games.
At the end of the fight Staneva faced the crowd and made an ‘X’ symbol with her hands, which many have interpreted as a symbolic gesture pointing out that she is female, and has the X chromosome.
However, Yu-Ting, 28, shook hands with Staneva following the bout, with the Bulgarian then holding the rope open for her exit in a sign of respect.
After victory, Yu-Ting said that she had closed down her social media in light of a barrage of online abuse.
‘It was a very uneasy step,’ she said. ‘Winning this match doesn’t mean I can relax. I’ve received a lot of supportive messages. I haven’t read them because I shut down my social media. The entire population of Taiwan are supporting me so I am going to take that strength to hopefully go all the way to the end.’
Staneva’s coach suggested that his fighter’s opponent should not be taking part. ‘I'm not a medical person so I shouldn't say if Lin should compete or not,’ he said. ‘But when the test shows she has Y (male) chromosomes, she could not be here.’
It was not only revenge for Yu-Ting, 28, against her objectors but also over Staneva who was awarded her bronze medal at the World Championships in New Delhi last year.
Despite Yu-Ting beating Staneva, 34, in India, their bout result was overturned after the Taiwan boxer faced doubts over her gender and the fight declared a ‘no contest.’
But this morning Yu-Ting was declared the unanimous winner and was warmly greeted by Olympic fans inside the North Paris Arena.
Yu-Ting said: ‘I have received many messages of support from my country and from people in Paris. I thank them.
‘But I have not been able to read them because I have shut down my social media.
‘I am going to keep going and going to the gold medal. I have won a bronze medal, but I want to win the gold.’
She made no comment on the controversy surrounding her involvement in the Olympics.
Yu-Ting, who stands at 5ft 9in, was registered female at birth, as was Khelif who has a passport as a female.
Olympic chiefs have defended the involvement in Paris 2024 of both Khelif and Yu-Ting who began boxing at the age of 13 to protect her mother from domestic abuse.
The boxer, now guaranteed a bronze medal and will fight towards gold, underwent additional tests by Taiwan’s sports administrators before the Olympics which confirmed her eligibility after last year’s disqualification.
Yu-Ting’s Olympic officials called the accusations discriminatory and declared them a deliberate attempt to undermine the boxer’s mental state.
The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on boxers based on the gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Several sports have updated their gender rules over the past three years, including World Aquatics, World Athletics and the International Cycling Union. The track body also last year tightened rules on athletes with differences in sex development.
The IOC is in charge of boxing in Paris because it has revoked the Olympic status of the International Boxing Association following years of governance problems, a lack of financial transparency and many perceived instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.
The IBA is controlled by its president Umar Kremlev, who is Russian. He brought in Russian state-owned Gazprom as its primary sponsor and moved much of the IBA´s operations to Russia.
However Olympic officials say the matter regarding the two boxers is a ‘minefield’ and that no forensic and unquestionable scientific evidence has been provided to prove both athletes were not women.
IOC chief Bach said: ‘We are talking about women's boxing. We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who were raised as women, who have passport as women, who have competed for many years as women. This is the clear definition of a woman.'
But the IBA genetic tests showed that Khelif and Yu-Ting have male XY chromosomes in their DNA, but neither are transgender.
Celebrities such as JK Rowling, British Olympian swimmer Sharron Davies and double Olympic gold medal-winning ex-boxer Nicola Adams have spoken out against their involvement in women's sport.
Davies said: 'This is shocking. The IOC are a bloody disgrace. In effect legalising beating up females. This must stop!!! What the hell's the matter with them?'.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss asked: 'When will this madness stop? Men cannot become women. Why is the British Government not objecting to this?'
But Olympics chiefs have slammed what they described as an online ‘hate’ campaign against the boxers.
Khelif’s quarter-final opponent Anna Luca Hamori of Hungry had posted a picture of a ‘beauty and a beast’ in the run up to their bout and said she did not mind fighting ‘a man or a woman.’
The picture later disappeared from her social media profile.
The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee filed an official complaint with the IOC to protest the online harassment of Khelif that amounts to ' a serious violation of sports ethics and the Olympic Charter by one of the participants in the boxing tournament at the Paris Olympics, according to a statement that was posted on the committee's Facebook page.
The statement did not name the boxer who has allegedly posted disparaging comments of the Algerian, but warned that the IOC 'has issued a final warning to delete every post that concerns our heroine Iman Khalif.'
It added: ' We reserve the right to prosecute everyone who participated in the heinous campaign against our heroine Imane Khelif.'
