Controversy has engulfed the women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics after a boxer made ‘X gestures’ towards an opponent they lost to after she reportedly failed gender eligibility tests last year.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting demolished her opponent in the semi-finals of the women’s 57kg featherweight boxing at Roland Garros, beating Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman in a unanimous decision match.
It means Lin has won all her fights so far by a score of five to zero. She’s now facing Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in the final on Saturday (10 August).
But controversy took over the final stages of the fight between Lin and Yildiz Kahraman, with the Turk making X symbol gestures to the crowd with her two index fingers.
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At first, the two fighters exchanged pleasantries in the middle of the ring before Lin went to her corner.
Kahraman then took to the centre of the ring on her own, making the X gesture towards the cameras and crowds.
She wasn’t the first to do this, with Lin’s previous opponent Svetlana Staneva doing the same gesture after the Taiwanese boxer’s unanimous quarter-final win.
The X symbol is understood to represent the female chromosome structure known by XX, as opposed to the male XY chromosome.
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It is believed the gesture is in relation to the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) 2023 decision to ban Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif – who has also made it to her own gold medal fight.
The X gesture made after Esra Yildiz Kahraman’s loss. (Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The IBA says that both fighters had the XY chromosome after they underwent unspecified gender eligibility tests at the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships.
Khelif was therefore stopped from fighting in the gold medal bout of that tournament, with Lin’s bronze medal in the same championships taken off of her.
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The IBA has never made public the results of the gender tests they made both fighters take. And on top of this, the IBA ban hasn’t covered the Olympics after the body was stripped of its recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) relating to concerns over governance and finance issues.
A unanimous victory for Lin Yu-ting (Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Instead, the IOC uses other eligibility criteria for its boxing, which includes what an athlete’s passport says. In the case of Khelif and Lin, both of their passports say they are female.
When asked by media about what the X gesture made to the crowd meant, Yildiz Kahraman said: “No comment.”
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After getting to the gold medal fight, Lin said: “I am one fight closer to my goal of the gold medal. I really enjoyed that fight.
“Every athlete here is among the best in the world, so I will have to do my best to prepare for the final.
“The feeling of entering the gold-medal match is one of gratitude to myself for making it this far. 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.”
Khelif will go for gold on Friday night (9 August), with all gold medal bouts taking place at Roland Garros.
Featured Image Credit: Fabio Bozzani/Anadolu via Getty Images
Topics: Olympics, Boxing, World News, Sport
