Lin Yuting transformed her experience at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by winning a sparkling gold medal.
The Taiwanese boxer who has been at the center of a gender debate won 5-0 against 20-year-old Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the women’s 57kg gold medal match at the French Open on Saturday.
This was a big improvement from Tokyo in 2021, where Yuting was eliminated in the first round.
She leaned over to kiss Matt after her win.
Yuting’s length and four-inch height advantage presented challenges for Sheremeta, who was able to successfully avoid punches but was unable to launch any offensive attacks to score points.
The younger boxer was unable to make any adjustments that would turn the tide of the match against Yuting, who again took a dominant victory.
The win brought something to smile about for the 28-year-old Yuting, who endured a fierce gender identity debate during the Paris Olympics along with Algerian boxer Imane Kherif, who also won gold in the women’s 66 kg final on Friday.
In both Yuting’s semi-final and quarter-final matches, her opponents each made two Xs with their index fingers, presumably to represent the symbol for female chromosomes, as Yuting’s gender has been in question during the Olympics.
The gesture was performed by Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman and Bulgaria’s Svetlana Kamenova-Staneva in the semi-finals and quarter-finals, respectively.
The gender of both athletes has come under scrutiny after it was revealed that Yuting and Kheriff were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing gender identity tests.
They were subsequently expelled from the International Boxing Association (IBA) and on Monday IBA secretary-general Chris Roberts said the test results would not be made public, but suggested “you can read between the lines”.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not questioned the athletes, but has instead defended them.
2024 Paris Olympics
“The Algerian boxer was born as a woman, is registered as a woman, lives as a woman, boxes as a woman and has a woman’s passport,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said of Kherif.
The IOC has implemented various eligibility tests, excluding the IBA from the Olympics.
Yuting has remained silent about the controversy throughout the tournament, constantly thanking those who supported her in Paris.
“I’d like to thank everyone in Taiwan who supported me until late into the night,” she said after Wednesday’s semifinal. “I’d like to thank all the supporters who have supported and encouraged me up until now. I will do my best in the final to repay them.”
