Paris 2024: Taiwanese boxer with XY chromosomes also advances to the finals in her category

On Wednesday, Taiwanese boxer with XY chromosomes Lin Yu-ting advanced past the semifinals of the 57-kilogram category at the Paris 2024 Olympics confirming, in part, critics' complaints about the physical advantage of female athletes who failed gender eligibility tests last year for the World Boxing Championships organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

In this case, Lin defeated Turkish Esra Yildiz Kahraman by unanimous decision on Wednesday in the ring installed at Roland Garros, the emblematic Parisian tennis stadium. Her triumph was greeted with applause by thousands of spectators.

Algerian Imane Khelif, who also failed the gender eligibility tests and, like Yu-ting, possesses XY chromosomes (typical in men), also qualified for the 66kg final on Tuesday. Neither Lin nor Khelif had any trouble reaching the finals in their category.

The lanky Lin, five centimeters taller than her opponent, dominated the bout from the early stages. She only had one slip in the first round when she stumbled and briefly fell to the canvas.

Kahraman, encouraged by a group of Turkish fans in the stands, was forced to take risks to make up ground in the scores, and Lin was able to take advantage.

The Taiwanese boxer kept her distance from her opponent's fists and clearly won on the five judges' scorecards.

Thus, Lin will fight on Saturday for her first Olympic title three years after missing the podium at the Tokyo Games.

Poland's Szeremeta, the last hurdle

Her final opponent will be Poland's Julia Szeremeta, 20, who beat Nesthy Petecio, a silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, in the other semifinal by split decision (4-1).

The Paris 2024 participation of Lin and Khelif has generated media and political uproar after they were disqualified last year from the women's World Cup for failing a gender eligibility test, the medical details of which have not been made public to preserve the athletes' privacy.

The suspensions were decided by the IBA, a body at odds politically with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for several years.

This week, the IBA claimed that Lin and Khelif were subjected to "genetic tests showing that they are men," prompting Taiwanese authorities to threaten legal action against the body.

IOC president Thomas Bach and senior officials in Algeria and Taiwan have vigorously defended Khelif and Lin, claiming that they were born and raised as women and have passports showing this.

However, the IBA claims that these fighters possess XY chromosomes and thus have physical advantages over their rivals with XX chromosomes. This situation has raised a whole global discussion about the safety of female athletes in boxing and also discrimination against people with atypical biological conditions.

The situation has also caused misinformation among people who are for or against the participation of Khelif and Lin. On the one hand, many people and the media claimed that the boxers are transgender people and that they are impersonating women. This is not the case. Likewise, their defenders claim that they are "women with high testosterone levels," also not accurate, as explained by Irene Aguiar, a specialist in sports law and a reference in sports ethics issues and the impact of biology on competitiveness and safety in the different Olympic disciplines.

"Most likely, but of this there is no reliable source information, is that he has some anomaly of sexual development (ADS or DSD) of XY karyotype. This would explain that the sex recorded in the passport is female, due to having genitalia of that aspect at birth, and has therefore been registered that way. It would be like Semenya's case: biologically a male with an ADS that makes his genitalia ambiguous at birth and he is registered as female. Semenya's ADS is 5-ARD 46XY (confirmed by CAS, ECHR and, with respect to having testicles, by Semenya), but it is unknown whether this is also the case for Khelif."

While the IBA did not confirm the exact details of the medical tests, the IOC also failed to disprove the claim that the fighters possess XY chromosomes and merely attacked the validity of the genetic tests without presenting evidence.

However, in one correction, the IOC virtually admitted de facto that the female fighters possess such a genetic condition. This occurred when its president Bach said publicly, "But I repeat, here, this is not a DSD case, this is about a woman taking part in a women’s competition, and I think I have explained this many times." The organization itself had to clarify its remarks: "What was intended was: 'But I repeat, here, this is not a transgender case.'"

However, beyond the controversy, Khelif and Lin will compete for the gold in their respective categories, and they are the favorites to take first place.