The Bulgarian female boxer Svetlana Staneva lost to Lin Yu-Ting, a ‘biological male’, in the quarterfinals of the women’s featherweight event at the Paris Olympics 2024 on August 4, Sunday. The gender debate started following Algerian Imane Khelif’s controversial win against Italian boxer Angela Carini. Now, Lin Yu-Ting’s participation and win have reignited the debate on gender and fairness in women’s sport. Just like Kheif, Yu-Ting was also cleared to compete in the women’s boxing by the International Olympic Committee based on gender eligibility on her passport gender.
Staneva makes the X hand gesture after losing
Lin Yu-Ting defeated Svetlana Staneva by unanimous decision in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals of the women’s featherweight event. However, Svetlana definitely looked disappointed to lose to a biological male. After the results were announced and Svetlana was greeting the crowd, she made an ‘X’ hand gesture before leaving the ring.
In biology, XX stands for female chromosomes and it seems like Svetlana Staneva was highlighting that she is the actual female with XX chromosomes and protesting against the addition of Lin Yu-Ting in women’s boxing.
After Svetlana’s defeat, her coach Borislav Georgiev said that he is not a medical person who can tell if Lin can compete here or not, but when the tests show she has a Y chromosome, then she shouldn’t be here.
Both Yu-Ting and Khelif were disqualified in 2023
In 2023, Lin Yu-Ting and Imane Khelif were both disqualified from the 2023 World Boxing Championships after failing to pass the gender eligibility test conducted by the International Boxing Association. Yu-Ting was also stripped of her bronze medal after failing the gender eligibility test and the medal was given to Svetlana Staneva. Earlier, the Taiwanese boxer also participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but was eliminated in the Round of 16 after losing to Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines.
Yu-Ting is focused on winning
Lin Yu-Ting has been in the news amid the gender controversy, but she is not bothered by it and is focused on winning a medal for the people of her country. “I know all of Taiwan’s people are standing behind me and supporting me, and I will carry this energy to the end,” said Yu-Ting after the win.
Lin Yu-Ting will now reach the finals when she faces Esra Yildiz Kahraman in the semi-finals of the women’s featherweight event. The Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif are the only two biological male boxers to win medals in Olympic history.
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