Gender boxer Lin Yu-Ting reigned supreme and powered her way to an Olympic gold medal to become only the second woman here to hit her critics where it hurts.
Yu-Ting, 28, outlasted Poland’s Julia Szeremeta, 20, over three rounds at Roland Garros to win a unanimous decision and join Algeria’s Imane Khelif in successfully defeating their opponents from outside the ring, who claimed they were both men and should have been banned from the Paris games.
Yu-Ting wiped the smile off her opponent’s face with a flurry of punches from the bell. Szeremeta, who turns 21 in a fortnight and whose nickname is “Shady,” tried to distract her by smiling and dancing around the ring.
But Yu-Ting had recovered from many attacks in these games and would not accept it any longer. She won in three rounds and fell to her knees as her opponent graciously congratulated her.
However, Yu-Ting’s struggle will continue after she leaves Paris on Saturday, where she and Khelif, 25, were at the centre of the biggest controversy of Paris 2024.
Lin Yu-Ting is an Olympic champion after winning gold in the women’s featherweight category in Paris
Taiwanese Lin defeated 20-year-old Polish fighter Julia Szeremeta in Friday’s final at Roland Garros
Taiwanese sports administrators are preparing legal action against the International Boxing Association over gender allegations and for allegedly disclosing their medical records.
Talks with the International Olympic Committee will continue after Paris to silence the IBA which plunged Golden Girls Yu-Ting and Khelif into a fortnight of acrimony.
Yu-Ting and Khelif were disqualified by the IBA from last year’s World Boxing Championships in India, where they allegedly failed gender testing.
Taiwanese officials are particularly upset because they say they conducted their own tests on their boxer in the run-up to Paris, which confirmed her status in the women’s 57kg category.
Yu-Ting was attacked by two of her previous opponents in the ring after she had defeated them.
Turkey’s Esra Yildiz made the double “X” sign with her index fingers just as the Taiwanese boxer’s Bulgarian opponent had done in the previous fight.
Male chromosomes are designated by an X and a Y, while females have two Xs.
But Yu-Ting and Khelif’s surge toward gold medals has dealt a blow to their critics.
Olympic chiefs will also feel they have been vindicated in their decision not to ban her and Khelif.
On Friday, Khelif won his gold amid an outpouring of support from within the boxing world and those watching on television in his home country.
Imane Khelif won a gold medal for Algeria in the women’s welterweight event on Friday night.
Khelif (left) defeated China’s Liu Yang by unanimous decision in Friday’s welterweight final.
Yu-Ting also braved the storm that followed her into the ring and bowed and greeted the 13,000 people who attended Roland Garros and thanked them for their support.
Yu-Ting, who is 1.75m tall, was registered female at birth, as was Khelif, and both are listed as women on their passports.
Olympic chiefs have defended the participation in Paris 2024 for both Khelif and Yu-Ting, who began boxing at the age of 13.
Olympic officials called Yu-Ting’s allegations discriminatory and said they were a deliberate attempt to undermine the boxer’s mental state.
The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on the boxers based on gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Several sports have updated their gender rules in the past three years, including the World Swimming Federation, the World Athletics Federation and the International Cycling Union. The athletics body also tightened rules on athletes with differences in sexual development last year.
The IOC is in charge of boxing in Paris because it revoked the Olympic status of the International Boxing Association following years of governance problems, lack of financial transparency and many perceived cases of corruption in judging and refereeing.
Lin, 28, is pictured waving to the crowd before entering the ring ahead of her gold medal fight.
The IBA is controlled by its president, Russian Umar Kremlev, who hired the Russian state-owned company Gazprom as his main sponsor and moved much of the IBA’s operations to Russia.
However, Olympic officials say the issue of the two boxers is a “minefield” and that no forensic, indisputable scientific evidence has been provided to prove the two athletes were not women.
IOC chief Bach said: “We are talking about women’s boxing. We have two boxers who were born as women, who were raised as women, who have a women’s passport, who have competed for many years as women. That is the clear definition of a woman.”
But IBA genetic testing showed that Khelif and Yu-Ting both have XY male chromosomes in their DNA, but neither is transgender.
Celebrities including JK Rowling, British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and former boxer Nicola Adams, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, have spoken out against her participation in women’s sport. Former Prime Minister Lynn Truss has also been critical.