Gender row boxer Lin Yu-ting storms to Olympic gold and follows Imane Khelif’s lead | Other | Sport

Lin Yu-ting powered to an emphatic victory over Julia Szeremeta to win gold in the women’s 57kg boxing at the Paris Olympics.

Taiwanese competitor Lin, like Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, turned out at the Games despite being disqualified from the World Championships last year for reportedly failing gender eligibility tests.

Lin won by a comfortable unanimous decision against Poland’s Szeremeta, who took a beating over three rounds and finished the contest with a battle-worn face.

In leaving victorious, Lin followed Khelif’s lead by winning gold despite facing a fortnight of gender-led controversy. Lin’s semi-final opponent, Esra Yildiz Kahraman, protested her defeat by using two fingers to make an ‘X’ sign in the middle of the ring.

The symbol is said to represent the female XX chromosomes. Lin’s previous opponent, Svetlana Staneva, did exactly the same thing after suffering defeat to the 28-year-old at the Paris Games.

Khelif’s opening win over Angela Carini was marred by controversy when the Italian effectively gave up after the first significant punch landed inside 46 seconds. Carini collapsed to her knees in tears and said to her coach: “It’s not right.”

She later told reporters that she had never been hit so hard in her career. But after that led to a torrent of abuse for Khelif, Carini later apologised.

The International Boxing Association (IBA), which disqualified Lin from last year’s World Championships, now faces legal action from Taiwanese sports administrators due to the claims made against her.

Officials from Taiwan say they conducted their own gender tests on Lin and concluded that she was clear to compete in the 57kg category. After her one-sided victory in Saturday’s gold-medal match, Lin saluted the Roland Garros crowd.

Olympics chiefs have stood by Lin and Khelif, who were both registered female at birth and are listed as female in their passports. International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach said there was ‘never any doubt’ that the pair are women.

The IOC stopped recognising the IBA last year due to concerns over their governance, finance and ethics, before opting to run the Olympics boxing competition itself.

They said: “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 IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving. Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination.”

Lin won World Championships gold at bantamweight in 2018 and repeated the feat four years later at featherweight. She boasts a 40-14 overall record, with one of her victories coming by way of knockout.