Second boxer who failed gender eligibility test secures Olympic medal

The Taiwanese athlete was disqualified from the World Championships last year after failing “eligibility criteria”.

Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who has been at the center of a gender controversy at the Paris Olympics, is guaranteed a medal at the Games after defeating her Bulgarian rival in their quarterfinal on Sunday.

Competing for the Chinese Taipei team, Lin defeated Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria by unanimous decision to progress to the featherweight semifinals and secure at least a bronze medal.

Lin became the second boxer accused of being “biologically male” to reach the semifinals in Paris, after Algeria’s Imane Khelif defeated Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori in their welterweight quarterfinal one day earlier.

Both athletes “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition” under the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) regulations in March 2023, and were disqualified from the World Championships in New Delhi.

In a statement released in the end of July, the IBA stressed that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test… This test conclusively indicated that both athletes… were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”

After her bout with Lin, Bulgarian rival Staneva, a 34-year-old veteran, raised her hands to form an ‘X’ sign in the ring, the pointing her fingers at herself, indicating the XX chromosomes of a female. She left the arena without shaking hands with her rival and refused to take questions from the media.

The Bulgarian Olympic Team said Staneva was “disappointed” after the victory was awarded “to the widely discussed Yu Ting Lin.”

“Svetlana crossed her fingers in front of everyone and pointed to herself. Later, in the mixed zone, she only said, ‘I have XX chromosomes, I am a woman,’” the team said in a Facebook post. The gesture intended to show her attitude toward what “was happening at the boxing tournament in Paris,” it added.

Staneva’s coach, Borislav Georgiev, condemned the bout as a “circus act,” accusing the Taiwanese boxer of “playing dirty as hell.”

Gender controversy engulfed the Paris Olympics last week after Algerian boxer Khelif beat Italy’s Angela Carini in a fight that lasted just 45 seconds, leading to Carini shouting “This is unjust!” The contest sparked global outcry and raised questions as to the fairness of allowing “biological males” to compete with female boxers in the ring.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has explained its decision to clear Khelif and Lin Tu-ting for the Games by saying that both boxers “are women according to their passports.”