Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting, who had previously failed to meet gender criteria, won handidly against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova Friday, 3-0.
Lin won each round in a dominating bout in the Paris Olympics that showcased Lin’s height and reach, which overpowered Turdibekova in a women’s boxing match, per Fox News.
Lin was the No. 1 seed in the 57-kilogram division. Lin had a bye going into the round of 16.
Lin, like fellow boxer Algerian Imane Khelif, had been caught up in a gender controversy previously.
Lin was disqualified from the 2023 Women’s Boxing World Championships — an International Boxing Association-sanctioned event — because Lin did not meet gender criteria. Lin’s bronze medal was ultimately stripped.
IBA President Umar Kremlev said when Lin was disqualified, “Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women.”
The IBA has continued saying Lin’s disqualification was “justified.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), on the other hand, has defended allowing Lin and Khelif to compete in the Games.
“These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA,” the IOC said. “Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.”
“According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing,” it continued.
“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.”
Lin will fight Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva next.
Italy’s Angela Carini forfeited a fight Thursday against Khelif just 46 seconds into the bout. Khelif allegedly has male chromosomes, per Fox News, as IJR reported on previously.
