Paris. Taiwanese Lin Yu-Ting won the 57kg final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Saturday, completing a gold medal haul for the two female boxers who were embroiled in a gender controversy at the summer event.
Lin, 28, defeated Poland’s Julia Szeremeta, 20, by unanimous decision on the centre court ring at Roland Garros, where the crowd applauded her victory.
Taiwanese and Algerian Imane Khelif were criticised throughout the tournament by some rivals and conservative politicians such as Donald Trump, who called for their withdrawal from the Games because they failed a gender eligibility test at last year’s women’s World Cup.
A day after Khelif’s triumph in the 66kg final, Lin also had the opportunity to claim her first Olympic title.
The tall Taiwanese boxer started the fight by keeping her distance from Szeremeta and taking advantage of the fact that, with her extra height of ten centimetres, her arms could reach her rival from a distance.
The Taiwanese took a slight advantage in the first round which gave her confidence to engage in several intense exchanges of blows with her young opponent.
Szeremeta, who had upset Tokyo 2020 runner-up Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines in the semi-finals, was becoming desperate in the face of Lin’s accurate counter-attacking play.
The Pole was forced to fight back in the final round and caused Lin to briefly fall, but the Taiwanese managed to get out of the bind and then stay out of Szeremeta’s reach.
As in her three previous fights, Lin was declared the winner by all five judges.
After the referee raised his arm, Lin bowed four times to acknowledge the applause from the crowd, which was close to the 15,000-seat capacity, and knelt in the ring.
The night before, the Philippe-Chatrier track was packed with Algerian fans who celebrated the victory of their boxer Imane Khelif.
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– 2024-08-16 17:39:14
