Taiwan gender-row boxer Lin eases to Paris Olympics gold / Photo: Mauro PIMENTEL - AFP
Taiwan gender-row boxer Lin eases to Paris Olympics gold
Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting won her Paris Olympics women's boxing final on Saturday, ensuring that the two fighters at the centre of a major gender controversy both take home gold.
A day after Algeria's Imane Khelif clinched gold at 66kg, Lin claimed the 57kg crown with a unanimous points decision win over Poland's Julia Szeremeta at Roland Garros.
It was Taiwan's second gold of the Games and Lin bowed to all four sides of the arena, before kneeling down and banging the canvas with her fists.
Lin and Khelif have been under intense scrutiny for much of the past two weeks in a furore that has drawn fire from the likes of Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.
Both boxers were disqualified from last year's world championships after failing gender eligibility testing, with Lin stripped of her bronze, only to be cleared to compete in the French capital.
Lin, who like Khelif competed without controversy at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, was cheered into the 15,000-seated Court Philippe-Chatrier and again when her name was read out.
The 28-year-old had won all three of her bouts by unanimous points to reach the final against the 20-year-old Szeremeta.
The Taiwanese hared into the ring and enjoyed a height advantage of 10 centimetres over the Pole, Lin using her superior reach and thrusting jab from the first bell.
Lin momentarily had the more compact Pole backed onto the ropes with a flurry of punches with a minute left of the first round to go ahead on all five judges' scorecards.
The second round was more of a brawl but Lin maintained her composure and her advantage, before sealing the deal in the third and final round, although the Pole refused to go quietly.
- What's the controversy? -
Lin and Khelif were thrown out of last year's world championships, which was run by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), but were cleared by the IOC to compete in Paris.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has overseen the sport at the Games because of concerns over the IBA's running of boxing, including questions over its finances, ethics and judging of bouts.
The IBA's Kremlin-linked president Umar Kremlev claimed at a chaotic press conference this week that Khelif and Lin had undergone "genetic testing that shows that these are men".
The IOC has leapt to the defence of both boxers, with president Thomas Bach saying they were born and raised as women, and have passports saying that. Neither is known to identify as transgender.
Both fighters have enjoyed strong support back home and been well-received by spectators in Paris.
Top Taiwanese sports officials have threatened legal action against the IBA.
M.Schulz--MP
