Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, who quietly weathered a firestorm during these Paris Games of at times ugly speculation about her personal biology, won a gold medal Saturday on what could potentially be the last night of boxing at the Olympic Games.
In a ring centered at Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros, Lin set all the wider noise aside with a victory that played out much like the rest of her wins at these Games: Fairly subdued, defensive and filled with counterpunching to score a unanimous decision in a system where knockouts are highly difficult to attain.
Julia Szeremeta, 20, of Poland, didn’t help herself by fighting with her hands often down by her sides, a strategy she had successfully employed earlier in the tournament to throw her opponents off by inviting hurried attacks that she could counter. It didn’t work against Lin, who has been the most disciplined fighter in this featherweight division of 57 kilograms (125 pounds). With her longer length, she often had Szeremeta within reach and hit her enough to bloody her nose by the end of the bout. None of the five judges awarded Szeremeta a round.
“Every fight is not easy,” Lin said. “Winning 5-0 might seem easy but behind that is a lot of practice and hard work.”
The end looked much like many other title fights. The crowd cheered. Szeremeta, who has political aspirations in her home country, shook Lin’s hand and bowed as she left the ring. Lin dropped to her knees and put her head to the canvas. She gave one of her coaches a piggyback ride as she bounded offstage. The medalists posed for a selfie and Lin bit her gold medal for the cameras.
Absent were signs of the gender controversy that enveloped Lin and Imane Khelif, an Algerian fighter who clinched gold in another division on Friday night. On the surface, the dispute is separate from the threat that boxing could be off the program at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, a circumstance that has been brewing for several years because of a spat between the International Boxing Association and the International Olympic Committee.
It was clear throughout the Paris Games that the IBA, which disqualified Lin and Khelif from the 2023 world championships, sought to leverage the presence of the fighters in the Olympics.
The IBA said it stripped medals from Lin and Khelif in 2023 because medical tests administered during the tournament showed that the women had advantages over other competitors. The IOC has repeatedly affirmed that Lin and Khelif followed all the rules to compete, were assigned female at birth and had properly competed in women’s divisions for several years.
Khelif this week described the criticism of her eligibility as a “fierce campaign” marked by “bullying.” The fervor escalated when her first fight concluded with her opponent quitting after 46 seconds.
The IBA held a tumultuous news conference which officials billed as a forum to give more details about the disqualifications and the tests. But after delays and technical difficulties, officials said they could not reveal more specifics, then used contradictory and often inaccurate descriptions of gender and sex as they speculated about Khelif and Lin and took potshots at the IOC.
“We’re not able to disclose the results of any tests,” said Chris Roberts, the organization’s secretary general. “But you can read between the lines about where that sits.”
On Friday, IOC President Thomas Bach said Olympic organizers would be willing to consider changes to the rules for boxing, which primarily rely on passports and other official government documents to classify athletes into proper divisions. “But what is not possible is that somebody says, ‘This is not a woman,’ just by looking at someone or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interests,” Bach said.
Bach said the IOC would likely need until next year to decide on the future of boxing on the Olympic program. Earlier in the Games, the IOC said national boxing organizations must reach a consensus around a new international federation to be included in Los Angeles. The IBA, which was expelled from its IOC association, is running women’s world boxing championships in Kazakhstan in September and October.
Lin has been relatively quiet, both about the controversy and her bouts. But she acknowledged after clinching the gold that she had not been alone even in this ruthlessly individual sport.
“I feel incredible. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and thanks to my team and everyone in Taiwan,” she said. “They gave me the power.”
(From left, photo of silver medalist Julia Szeremeta Poland, gold medalist Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, bronze medalists Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey and Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines / Richard Pelham / Getty Images)
