By Aadi Nair and Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, one of two boxers at the centre of a gender dispute at the Paris Olympics, moved a step closer to the Olympic title when she beat Turkey’s Esra Yildiz by unanimous decision in the women’s featherweight semi-finals on Wednesday.
Lin, twice world champion, and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif have been in the spotlight at the Olympics over a gender row that has dominated headlines and been the subject of much discussion on social media platforms.
Yildiz made an X sign with her fingers at the end of the bout, later declining to comment on the reason why.
The 28-year-old Lin is looking to clinch Taiwan’s first Olympic title in boxing, the island having previously won only three bronze medals in the sport.
She faces Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in the final on Saturday.
“The feeling of entering the gold-medal match is one of gratitude to myself for making it this far,” Lin told reporters.
“After going out in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, it’s been a tough journey to reach the finals. I will use everything I’ve learned in my life to do my best in the next match. I thank everyone in Taiwan for supporting me, even late at night.
“Thank you to all the supporters who have supported and encouraged me along the way. I will give my utmost effort to repay them in the final.”
Lin and Khelif were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, with the body saying in a shambolic press conference on Monday that a gender test had ruled both of them ineligible.
The two boxers are competing in the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s governing body in 2023 and took control of organising the boxing in Paris.
The IOC has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.
At these Games, the IOC is using boxing eligibility rules that were applied at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics which do not include gender testing.
Lin used her longer reach to keep her Turkish opponent at bay, landing several jabs, but Yildiz would not back down and tried to break through.
Having lost the first two rounds, the Turk went all in during the last one and landed a right hook, but it was too little, too late to turn the tide in a one-sided affair.
‘UNFAIR PRESSURE’
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, writing on his Facebook page on Wednesday ahead of Lin’s fight, said Lin had been “maliciously attacked” by the IBA.
“There is no doubt about Yu-Ting’s eligibility for the competition, and the IOC has repeatedly publicly supported her,” he said.
“Yu-Ting is still under a lot of unfair pressure, and I, like Taiwan’s people, feel distressed. I admire Yu-Ting very much. In the face of so much pressure, she still maintains a positive attitude and has steadily entered the top four.”
The storm over Lin and Khelif erupted when the Algerian’s opponent Angela Carini pulled out of their round-of-16 bout last week after 46 seconds, saying she felt intense pain and feared for her safety after being hit with a barrage of punches.
In the aftermath of Italian Carini’s withdrawal, the gender furore swept social media, with people such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Tesla founder Elon Musk voicing their opposition to the two boxers competing at the Games.
Lin beat Svetlana Kamenova Staneva in the quarter-finals, with the Bulgarian’s coach Borislav Georgiev alleging that the IOC’s support of Lin and Khelif had influenced judges into awarding a victory to the Taiwanese boxer.
Khelif won her welterweight semi-final and will fight China’s Yang Liu in the final on Friday. (This story has been corrected to replace the word ‘country,’ with ‘island,’ in paragraph 4)
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, Aadi Nair and Joyce Zhou in Paris, additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Ed Osmond and Clare Fallon)
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