Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting will compete for an Olympic gold medal for the first time after she defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman by unanimous decision in their women’s 57kg semi-final.
Lin has been subjected to a gender eligibility row after being banned by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from taking part in last year’s world championships. Despite the massive furore, she has remained focused on her goal at hand and will face Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the final. “I am one fight closer to my goal of the gold medal. I really enjoyed that fight,” Lin said afterwards.
The IBA, which is run by the Russian businessman Umar Kremlev and funded by the Russian state oil company Gazprom, was stripped of recognition as boxing’s governing body and expelled from the Olympics over various concerns, including corruption and financial transparency.
Since the furore, many Taiwanese officials have come to Lin’s defence. The Taiwanese President, Lai Ching Te, has written numerous messages in support of Lin on social media and on Tuesday, the Taiwan sports administration threatened the IBA with legal action due to its “continued publication of false information” regarding the eligibility of Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif.
After the defeat, Lin and Kahraman shook hands and the Turk briefly spoke with Lin’s longtime coach, John Tseng Tzu-Chiang, before opening the ropes to help Lin leave the ring.
As she walked back to her side of the ring, however, she put her index fingers together to form an ‘X’ and presented it to the different sides of the ring. It was a similar gesture to the one made by Lin’s defeated opponent, Svetlana Staneva, in the previous round, which some have interpreted as a reference to XX chromosomes.
Lin arrived to support and cheers from a near-full stadium, with cries of “Yu-Ting, Jia You” (“Come on, Yu-Ting”) ringing out throughout the bout. While Kahraman landed a number of blows early on, Lin controlled the early stages. She ended the first round with all five judges scoring it in her favour.
Lin and Kahraman began the second round trading blows in a series of high-octane exchanges but throughout the contest the Taiwanese, a relatively tall and slender boxer at 5ft 9in, used her superior length brilliantly.
While Kahraman was more proactive, throwing more punches and trying to initiate closer contact, Lin danced around with confidence and ease, creating distance between the two boxers and patiently waiting for her moments to counter Kahraman when she dropped her guard. It was a smooth, cool and confident performance.
Each successful round emboldened Lin the Taiwanese boxer to perform with even more freedom and, by the third round, she was imperious. When she was declared the winner, Lin bowed to each side of the stadium before departing.
Lin, a two-time world champion who started boxing to protect her single mother and family from violence, is competing in her second Olympics at 28 years old. Three years ago, at the Tokyo Games, she was defeated in the round of 16 by Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines, who showed that she could neutralise the length and range of Lin en route to her silver medal.
“The feeling of entering the gold-medal match is one of gratitude to myself for making it this far,” she said. “After going out in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, it’s been a tough journey to reach the finals. I will use everything I’ve learned in my life to do my best in the next match.”
Petecio’s hope of bettering that medal came to an end on Wednesday night as she was defeated in the semi-final by Szeremeta, a 20-year-old who has established herself as a force this week in Paris. Szeremeta is Poland’s first boxing medallist at an Olympic Games since 1992.
Khelif has also reached the final in her weight category, the 66kg competition, where she will face Yang Liu of China.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak became an Olympic gold medallist in the men’s 80kg category, defeating Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan by split decision. Erislandy Álvarez Borges of Cuba edged out France’s Sofiane Oumiha by split decision in the men’s 63.5kg final.