Olympics 2024: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting progresses in women’s boxing amid gender row | Boxing News

Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting won her opening match in the women’s 57kg category at the Paris Olympics amid the gender row that has engulfed the Games.

Top seed Lin – who lost her bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships after failing to meet gender eligibility criteria but has been cleared to compete in France – beat Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova to reach the quarter-finals, using her height and range to dictate the fight.

The 28-year-old is one of two boxers, alongside Algeria’s Imane Khelif, to have been disqualified from last year’s World Championships but permitted to take part in these Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee adopting different criteria to the International Boxing Association.

Khelif won her round-of-16 clash in the women’s 66kg category in just 46 seconds on Thursday after her opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, quit, saying: “I preferred to stop for my health.”

The IOC said in a statement: “These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. They were suddenly disqualified without any due process.

“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”

A tearful Carini said after Thursday’s fight: “It hurt so much. I am heartbroken. I was told a lot of times that I was a warrior, but I preferred to stop for my health. I have never felt a punch like this.

“After the second blow, and after years of experience in the ring and a lifetime of fighting, I felt extreme pain in my nose.”

She added of Khelif: “I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn’t judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.”

Khelif will face Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamo in the 66kg quarter-finals on Saturday, with victory guaranteeing her an Olympic medal, as both losing semi-finalists awarded bronze medal in the Olympics.

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