OLYMPICS/Boxer Lin Yu-ting wins Olympic gold amid gender misconceptions

Paris, Aug. 10 (CNA) Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) emerged as Olympic champion in the women's 57-kilogram (featherweight) division on Saturday in Paris, despite facing global online abuse due to gender misconceptions over the past two weeks.

Lin defeated Julia Szeremeta of Poland by a 5-0 unanimous decision to clinch the gold, completing a long journey of redemption after being eliminated from the Tokyo Games in 2021 in her opening bout.

Lin, who has been competing in women's events since her boxing debut in September 2013, is the first Taiwanese pugilist to win gold, after three other Taiwanese women boxers earned bronze medals in their respective divisions in Tokyo and Paris.

No male boxers from Taiwan have ever medaled at the Games.

Lin and Imane Khelif of Algeria have been caught in a firestorm of gender scrutiny during the Games as tensions between the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) intensified.

The IBA was suspended from running the Olympic boxing competition in 2019 and permanently stripped of its Olympic credentials in 2023 because of its troubled governance and lack of transparency.

But that did not stop it from firing accusations at the two during the Olympics that they should not be competing in Paris in the women's boxing event.

Its bluster stems from its disqualification of Lin and Khelif at the Women's World Championships in 2023 for failing undisclosed gender-related tests, which the IOC has criticized.

The IOC has referred to the two boxers recently as "victims of sudden and arbitrary decisions by the IBA" and repeatedly affirmed over the past two weeks the eligibility of both athletes for the Games, citing their passports and being identified as female since birth.

That support, however, has not stopped some of their opponents from protesting the issue after losing their bouts.

Khelif secured her gold in the women's 66 kg division on Friday, after which she reiterated her identity as "a woman like any other woman."

Saturday's victory saw Lin join Khelif in silencing the noises from outside the ring.

With this accomplishment, the 28-year-old pugilist from Taiwan achieved a golden Grand Slam in her amateur boxing career, adding to her two world championships, two Asian championships, and one Asian Games gold.

Lin's victory also boosted Taiwan's medal count to two golds and five bronzes, marking the third time the team has won two golds in a single edition of the Games.

Taiwan's other gold in Paris was won by the badminton duo of Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) in the men's doubles.