Boxer Lin Yu-ting wins gold amidst row over gender

PARIS: Lin Yu-ting fought to remain poised and calm throughout the Paris Olympics boxing tournament, even when it seemed like most of the chattering world was maligning her, misrepresenting her and questioning the very nature of her being.

The flyweight shut off her social media, kept up her training and focused on earning one proficient victory after another.

But when she heard Taiwan’s anthem while standing on the top podium at Roland Garros with a gold medal around her neck, Lin suddenly broke down in cathartic sobs.

She cried not only for the tumult of the past two weeks, but for a lifetime in boxing that culminated in this gold-medal victory over previously unfathomable challenges.

“I saw images flashing, and I thought about the beginning of my career when I started boxing,” Lin said. “All the difficult practices, the times that I got injured, the competitors I fought against. All these images flashed in my head. There are times of great pain. There are times of great joy. I cried because I was so touched.”

Lin completed her domination of her division Saturday night, following Imane Khelif's lead a day earlier by giving a glittering response to the intense scrutiny faced by both fighters inside the ring and around the world over misconceptions about their womanhood.

Lin routed Julia Szeremeta of Poland 5:0 in the final, capping her four-fight unbeaten run through Paris by winning Taiwan's first Olympic boxing gold medal.

On Friday, Khelif won Algeria's first women's boxing medal with a decisive victory in the welterweight division final, beating Yang Liu of China.

Both fighters persevered through an avalanche of criticism and uninformed speculation about their sex during the Paris tournament to deliver the best performances of their boxing careers.

“Every fight is not easy,” Lin said. “Winning 5-0 might seem easy, but behind that is a lot of practice and hard work.”

World leaders, celebrities and online critics attempted to make it about something other than the boxers’ years of work.

The detractors either questioned their eligibility to be in women’s competitions or falsely claimed they were men, forcing both women to take unwanted starring roles in a debate over changing attitudes toward gender identity and safety regulation in sports.

Lin said she minimized this potentially enormous distraction by managing to avoid learning about it almost entirely. She also said she’ll speak with her team about whether to take legal action against some of the claims.