Newly-crowned boxing champion Lin Yu Ting ignored the noise amid gender eligibility row

By SABC Sport
11th August 2024

Newly-crowned Olympic champion Lin Yu Ting, one of the boxers at the centre of a gender eligibility row, insisted she has not paid too much attention to outside noise throughout the Paris Games.

Lin and Algerian fighter Imane Khelif have been at the heart of controversy after they were both cleared to compete in this year's Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), despite being disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) last year for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.

The IBA was expelled last year over financial and corruption concerns by the IOC, which is overseeing boxing at Paris 2024.

In a chaotic press conference in Paris last week, the IBA failed to provide any concrete evidence of the testing process or results.

Lin won Olympic gold on Saturday night after beating Poland's Julia Szeremeta in the women's 57kg final by unanimous decision at Roland Garros and revealed afterwards that she shut herself away from outside noise during the competition.

The Chinese Taipei boxer told a press conference: "As a elite athlete during the competition it's important to shut myself off from social media and to focus.

"Some of the noises and some of the news articles, of course I heard some of the information through my coach but I didn't pay too much mind to it.

"I was invited by the IOC to compete in the Games, I focused on the Games. As for other issues I relied on my coach to answer the questions."

A cagey opening in Saturday night's final saw Szeremeta throw some good jabs, but Lin eased into the contest with some quickfire punches and the judges awarded her the first round.

Lin started the second round firing a great hook into the side of her opponent's head before both fighters launched a range of quick body shots.

The Chinese Taipei boxer managed to catch Szeremeta on her head twice and was awarded the second round, but the Polish fighter started the final round launching some heavy punches.

However, Lin did enough to see the round out, clipping her opponent on the head just before the bell went to confirm her Olympic crown.

She embraced Szeremeta post-fight and held the ropes for her to walk out of the ring before soaking up cheers from the crowd.

Reflecting on her silver medal, Szeremeta said: "I didn't make it as I expected. I came here to get gold, and I didn't. But, I'm only 20 and it's not the end.

"The Olympic gold medal is my dream, and I'm not thinking about what's next. I have to rest and start training for the next thing."

Both Lin and Khelif were put under scrutiny after the Algerian boxer beat Angela Carini of Italy in just 46 seconds in her opening fight.

Khelif also won gold on Friday night following a unanimous decision over China's reigning world champion Yang Liu.

"I am fully qualified to take part in this competition - I am a woman," Khelif said afterwards.

"I was born a woman, I've lived as a woman and I've competed as a woman. There's no doubt that there are enemies of success, and that gives my success a special taste because of these attacks."