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Defeated boxer makes gesture to fighter at centre of Olympics gender row

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Lin Yu-ting marched into the Olympic semi-finals amid her continued gender row with her defeated opponent appearing to take a parting shot at her.

Lin Yu-ting has found herself at the centre of a fierce storm, but she saw off Bulgaria's Svetlanak Staneva in the quarter-finals to guarantee herself at least a bronze medal. Last year she failed gender eligibility tests from the International Boxing Association (IBA) and was booted out of the world championships and Staneva made two 'Xs with her index fingers after the fight.

Male chromosomes are designated by an X and a Y, while females have two X's - and that looked to be the motive behind the Bulgarian's gesture as debate rumbles on regarding her participation. Staneva left the boxing arena without commenting.

However according to the Washington Post her coach Borislov Georgiev walked through the press area carrying a piece of paper with a handwritten note by him that read: "I only want to play with women I am XX.” He also added: “This is maybe the message from every single woman boxer in this tournament.”

Algeria’s Imane Khelif is the other boxer caught up in the gender eligibility storm after she needed just 46 seconds to beat Italy's Angela Carini - who opted out of the fight when she claimed she'd never been hit so hard as she was reduced to tears.

The IOC said it made its eligibility decisions on boxers based on the gender-related rules that applied at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. IOC president Thomas Bach has defended the two female boxers and there was "never any doubt" they are women despite their disqualification from the 2023 World Championships.

He said on Saturday: "Let's be very clear, we are talking about women's boxing. We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman and who have competed for many years as a woman. This is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman."

Yu-Ting Ling's involvement in the Olympic boxing continues to be controversial (
Image:
Anadolu via Getty Images)

Yu-ting refused to be drawn into the ongoing controversy and said after her last eight victory: "I have received many messages of support from my country and from people in Paris. I thank them. But I have not been able to read them because I have shut down my social media. I am going to keep going and going to the gold medal. I have won a bronze medal, but I want to win the gold."

IBA genetic tests in the past have showed that Khelif and Yu-Ting have male XY chromosomes in their DNA, but neither are transgender. Britain's Nicola Adams, who has previously landed an Olympic gold, was among those to speak out against their involvement.

She said on social media: "After years of fighting for women's boxing to even exist in the Olympics and then all the training they go though to get there it was hard to watch another fighter be forced give up on her Olympic dreams.

"People not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty should not be able to complete in women's sport. Not only is this unfair it's dangerous!!"

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