OLYMPIC boxer Svetlana Staneva made a classy gesture after suffering defeat to gender row athlete Lin Yu-Ting.
Lin won the bout via unanimous decision to guarantee a bronze medal, and Staneva was gracious in defeat.
Their fight was messy at times with Lin twice falling to the canvas – neither was scored as an official knockdown for Bulgarian Staneva however.
After Lin was crowned the victor the Taiwan star celebrated in the ring and posed for photos.
She then shook hands with Staneva, who was sat waiting on the ropes to allow Lin an easy exit from the ring.
Staneva then stood up in the centre of the ring and waved to the crowd before bowing and shaking hands with the referee.
The athlete put on a show of respect for her opponent, whose inclusion in the Olympics has been met with a lot of backlash.
That is because Lin was disqualified from last year’s World Championships in New Delhi due to failing an unspecified gender test.
The IBA claimed she showed increased levels of testosterone and male XY chromosomes – however, these results have not been fully verified and the IOC gave her the green light to fight.
She is the second fighter to become embroiled in a gender row storm after Algeria’s Imane Khelif took to the ring.
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This is a more complicated case than the barrage of shameful transgender scandals which have engulfed women’s sport in recent years.
Khelif reportedly has a condition called Swyer Syndrome which means she has some female reproductive organs but also much higher levels of testosterone than women.
As a result, she has a superior physicality to females, which can be seen by her tall, powerful frame.
In other words, she has an unfair advantage.
And that’s why there’s been such a furious response, led by JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and Martina Navratilova, to the footage of Carini quitting after being smashed in the face.
The obvious, indisputable, medical, and scientific, truth is that someone born with male biology of any kind has an obvious physical advantage over biological females.
That’s why we keep the sexes apart in the Olympics.
Otherwise, women would barely win a single medal.
To pretend otherwise is to be either utterly deluded or wilfully dishonest.
THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) stirred up a huge controversy by clearing two women to box who had previously failed a gender test.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified at the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi, India, in March 2023.
Lin Yu-ting was stripped of a bronze medal after failing a gender eligibility test.
Khelif was disqualified in New Delhi for failing a testosterone level test.
Officials found tests showed they had ‘XY chromosomes’ — which indicates a person is biologically male.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association organised that event but is no longer recognised by the IOC.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before for many years, they haven’t just suddenly arrived – they competed in Tokyo.
“The federation needs to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness but at the same time there is the ability for everyone to take part that wants to. That is a difficult balance.
“In the end the experts for each sport are the people who work in that. If there is a big advantage that clearly is not acceptable, but that needs to be a decision made at that level.”
Both Khelif and Lin competed at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women Amateur Boxing Championships.
The IOC said all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.
The controversy follows the famous case of Caster Semenya.
South African middle-distance runner Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.
She won gold in the 800m at London 2012 and Rio in 2016 but was unable to compete at Tokyo in 2021 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.
Khelif beat her first opponent Angela Carini inside 46 seconds before progressing to the semi-final via a unanimous decision win over Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori Saturday.
Ahead of the quarter-final contests both Bulgaria and Hungary’s boxing federations contacted the IOC to object to Lin and Khelif’s inclusion in the Games.
Hungary’s federation [MOB] said in a statement: “Our federation has notified the Hungarian Olympic Committee of our objections to the participation of the Algerian athlete.
“The MOB is continuously examining the means it can use to protect Hamori’s rights to fair competition under the rules in force.
“The MOB president has initiated immediate consultations with the IOC Director of Sport to clarify the situation.”
