Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, boxer from Taiwan, shakes off gender questions, wins bout to assure medal

VILLEPINTE, France — Lin Yu-ting won her quarterfinal Olympics bout against Bulgarian Svetlana Staneva in a unanimous decision Sunday that assured a medal for the featherweight representing Chinese Taipei.

Lin has been fighting under cloud at Paris 2024, because she and another female boxer, from Algeria, have come under scrutiny due to baseless questions about their gender and eligibility to compete as women.

Those allegations continued after the bout when Staneva mocked the winner by making an “X” sign with her fingers in the ring. Staneva’s taunt was meant to declare herself to be a woman with a pair of X chromosomes, the Bulgarian Olympic Team confirmed in a Facebook posting.

Lin, meanwhile, thanked her coaches for their training and for sacrificing time away from family. The fighter also said she’s appreciative of fans back home in Taiwan and promised to return a slew of messages sent to her via social media after the Olympics.

“I especially want to thank the public from Taiwan for standing behind me and giving me support and cheering me, although I don’t have the time to respond to every message you sent,” she said after the fight.

Lin appeared to fight back tears, telling reporters a medal guarantee isn’t enough and that she won’t be satisfied with anything short of gold.

“Today is not a period, full stop, but a comma,” said Lin. “Our goal hasn’t been achieved yet. So we cannot give up on any opportunity, I will keep fighting.”

Lin has previously told reporters back home that she took up boxing as a child, in hopes of protecting her mother from domestic violence.

Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif have faced withering scrutiny during these Olympics, based on a 2023 disqualifications by the Russian-led International Boxing Association, which claimed that unspecified tests called the boxers’ gender into question.

The IOC has staunchly defended the boxers, saying concerns over their gender are baseless. The IBA’s legitimacy has since been called into question, with USA Boxing terminating its relationship with the body last year.

Calls for Lin to be kicked out of the tournament are completely uncalled for, according to a statement by the fighter’s Olympic organizing committee.

“Chinese Taipei Delegation strongly condemns the malicious online abuse and personal attacks and calls for an immediate stop on those behaviors,” the statement said.

In her fight on Sunday, Lin got off to a slow start against Staneva, as three judges scored the first round 10-9 for the eventual winner and two others had it 10-9 for the Bulgarian.

But then all five judges scored it 10-9 for Lin in the next two rounds, securing her a semifinal appearance. She’ll fight Turkey’s Esra Yıldız Kahraman on Wednesday night with that winner advancing to the gold-medal round on Saturday night.

Staneva declined to speak to reporters after the fight. But Bulgarian sports officials continued the attack on Lin, via social media.

The Bulgarian officials appeared to accidentally use the wrong pronoun to describe their fighter.

“After the match, still in the ring, Svetlana raised in front of all her fingers crossed and pointed to herself, and then in the mix zone stated only: ‘I have XX-chromosomes, I am a woman!’ ” according to the Bulgarian statement, “thus showing his attitude to the boxing tournament in Paris.”

This tournament awards two bronze medals instead of a third-place match. So qualification to the semifinals means an award to take home.