Algeria's Imane Khelif, right, fights Hungary's Anna Hamori in their women's 66-kg quarter-final boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France.John Locher/The Associated Press
The two female boxers at the centre of the gender controversy at the Paris Olympics have advanced to the semi-finals in their weight class, guaranteeing each at least a bronze medal and intensifying the debate around their participation in the Games.
Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, 28, and Algeria’s Imane Khelif, 25, have been under scrutiny since the Games began over allegations that they failed gender and testosterone tests at the world boxing championships last year.
On Sunday, Lin won her 57-kg quarter-final bout in a unanimous decision over Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria. The win puts Lin into the semi-finals against Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman on Wednesday. Khelif has also reached the semi-finals in her 66-kg class and takes on Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand on Tuesday.
Under Olympic boxing rules, semi-final winners fight for gold and silver while the two losers are each awarded bronze medals, forgoing a fight for third place.
After Sunday’s bout, Staneva walked past reporters without commenting but her coaches held up a sign she’d handwritten that said, “I only want to play with women. I am XX.”
“Maybe this is the message from every single woman boxer from the tournament,” said Borislav Georgiev, a Bulgarian trainer. “Svetlana won against Lin. But today and the previous one, the judges just decided and stole the win from Svetlana,” he added, referring to Lin’s two victories.
Lin hasn’t commented on the issue. On Sunday she said she turned off her social-media accounts before the Games started. “A lot of people cheered me on in Paris and also in my country,” she said. “I am going to take this strength all the way to the end.”
Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria in action against Yu Ting Lin of Taiwan in the women's 57-kg boxing quarter-final at the North Paris Arena on Aug. 4, 2024.Peter Cziborra/Reuters
Both fighters were expelled from the 2023 world boxing championships because of testing carried out by International Boxing Association. However, the IBA has not released the test results or backed up suggestions by its president, Umar Kremlev, that the boxers have XY chromosomes, which are present in males.
The association is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee because of allegations of widespread corruption. As a result of the dispute, the IOC has been running the boxing events in Paris and it has stood by both athletes and condemned the attacks against them on social media.
“We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman, and this is the clear definition of a woman,” IOC president Thomas Bach told a news conference on Saturday. “We will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war.”
On Sunday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the IBA’s testing lacked credibility and he noted that the tests were done toward the end of the world championships after several rounds of fights.
“Those tests are not legitimate tests. The tests themselves, the process of the tests, the ad hoc nature of the tests are not legitimate,” Adams told a news conference. “The testing, the method of the testing, the idea of the testing, which happened kind of overnight. None of it is legitimate and this does not deserve any response.”
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te criticized the attacks on Lin, calling them slander. “Facing the challenge, Yu-ting is fearless and uses her strength to crush the rumours. Let us continue to cheer for her.”
The controversy has also raised questions about the fate of boxing at the next Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Bach said the IOC wants to include the sport, but he said national boxing organizations must form a new governing body to replace the IBA. Organizers of the L.A. Games added that for now, boxing has not been included.
“We’ve always said that we’ve got to figure out a way to get boxing in the Games in 2028 but as we sit here today it is not on our schedule and we don’t have a venue for it,” LA28 CEO Casey Wasserman told Reuters on Sunday. “The IOC want to make sure that boxing finds its way to stability as a federation so it can have a permanent place on the Games without all this back and forth.”