Lin Yu-ting, a Taiwanese fighter and one of two Olympic boxers alleged to have male chromosomes, defeated Julia Szeremeta of Poland on Sunday to capture the women’s featherweight gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
Yu-ting was dominant throughout the match and secured a unanimous decision victory.
Both Yu-ting and Algerian fighter Imane Khelif have been the subject of much controversy in Paris after the pair were excluded from the Women’s World Championships in 2023 for failed gender tests.
In 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) President Umar Kremlev explained his organization’s decision to disqualify Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif from competing in the IBA’s 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships, according to Russia’s Tass News Agency. “Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition,” Kremlev said.
Still, despite the uproar, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) remained steadfast in their support of Khelif and Yu-ting.
“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. “They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case.”
Imane Khelif won gold earlier this week, making it a clean sweep of gold for fighters who failed the IBA gender test.