Lin Yu-ting crowned Olympic champion amid gender row in Paris
The Chinese Taipei fighter, one of the boxers at the centre of a gender eligibility row, beat Pole Julia Szeremeta
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Your support makes all the difference.Lin Yu Ting, one of the boxers at the centre of a gender eligibility row, was crowned Olympic champion after beating Julia Szeremeta in the women’s 57kg final.
The Chinese Taipei boxer beat the Polish fighter by unanimous decision in the contest’s showpiece at Roland Garros.
Lin and Algerian fighter Imane Khelif were both cleared to compete in this year’s Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), despite being disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) last year for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.
The IBA was expelled last year over financial and corruption concerns by the IOC, which is overseeing boxing at Paris 2024.
“I feel incredible,” Lin said. “I want to thank everyone who has supported me and thanks to my team and everyone in Taiwan. They gave me the power.”
“Every fight is not easy. Winning 5-0 might seem easy but behind that is a lot of practice and hard work.”
In a chaotic press conference in Paris last week, the IBA failed to provide any concrete evidence of the testing process or results.
A cagey opening round in Saturday night’s final saw Szeremeta throw some good jabs, but Lin eased into the round with some quickfire punches and the judges awarded her the first round.
Lin started the second round firing a great hook into the side of her opponent’s head before both fighters launched a range of quick body shots.
The Chinese Taipei boxer managed to catch Szeremeta on her head twice and was awarded the second round, but the Polish fighter started the final round launching some heavy punches.
However, Lin did enough to see the round out, clipping her opponent on the head just before the bell and was crowned Olympic champion.
She embraced Szeremeta post-fight and held the ropes for the Polish fighter to walk out of the ring before soaking up cheers from the crowd.
Both Lin and Khelif were put under scrutiny after the Algerian boxer beat Angela Carini of Italy in just 46 seconds in her opening fight.
Khelif won gold on Friday night following a unanimous decision over China’s reigning world champion Yang Liu.
“I am fully qualified to take part in this competition – I am a woman,” Khelif said afterwards.
“I was born a woman, I’ve lived as a woman and I’ve competed as a woman. There’s no doubt that there are enemies of success, and that gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.”