This Taiwanese Woman Boxer Is Also Facing A Gender Controversy At The Olympics

This Taiwanese woman boxer is on her way to winning a gold medal but she's also being attacked for her gender.

28-year-old Lin Yu-ting advanced to the gold medal match for the women’s 57kg boxing division on Monday, Aug. 7.

But after her semi-final win, her opponent, Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman, threw up an “XX” sign.

In her quarter-final match, Lin's Bulgarian rival Svetlana Staneva also taunted her with the "XX" sign after she lost, with the Bulgarian team confirming that Staneva was declaring her XX chromosome status.

Svetlana Staneva, a Bulgarian female boxer, used the 'X' hand symbol after being beaten by Lin Yu-Ting, symbolizing female chromosomes. pic.twitter.com/qAANnkAS5A

— World War 3 (@Worldwar_3_) August 4, 2024

Staneva’s coach also held up a piece of paper that read, “I’m XX. Save woman sport,” after the match.

Her coach after the bout: pic.twitter.com/XJBDtM9jP1

— Dani Yordanova (@dani_errs) August 4, 2024

XX chromosomes typically indicate that a person is genetically female, and Lin’s opponents had been suggesting that Lin had XY chromosomes, which typically indicates a person is genetically male.

This comes after Lin and fellow Algerian woman boxer, Imane Khelif, failed an unspecified gender eligibility test for the World Championships in 2023.

The test was administered by the International Boxing Association, or IBA, which has not been recognized by the International Olympic Committee since 2019 due to concerns about corruption, the integrity of its competitions and Russian political influence.

The IOC has denounced the IBA's decision to disqualify Lin and Khelif as "sudden, arbitrary and taken without any proper procedure."

The IOC, which primarily uses athletes’ passports as an indication of their age and gender, said there was "never any doubt" about Lin and Khelif being women as they are both listed as female on their passports.

But anti-trans commentators such as "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling continued to escalate the situation and accused Lin and Khelif of being men pretending to be women.

What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed? https://t.co/2OGWUQYtU5

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 30, 2024

Khelif is from Algeria, where it is illegal to be transgender.

Meanwhile, Lin’s Taiwan national identity number starts with 2, which is designated for people who are assigned female at birth and cannot be changed.

As the controversy grew, the IBA held a press conference on Monday, Aug. 5, promising to reveal its gender testing results.

During the press conference, the head of the IBA, who has known ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said its tests had found both Lin and Khelif had “men’s level of testosterone”.

However, another IBA official then contradicted him and said that the two underwent chromosome testing and not testosterone testing.

In the end, the IBA did not share any official results.

Lin and Khelif were both cleared to compete at this year’s Olympics by the IOC and competed in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Many medical experts have said gender testing for women athletes is often arbitrary, invasive and can be inaccurate.

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