Perhaps the Olympic boxing hysteria can remain calm for a moment.
For a day at least?
Lin Yu-Ting, the Taiwanese boxer competing for the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation, defeated Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in a unanimous decision in her opening bout at the North Paris Arena on Friday. Unlike Khelif’s controversial quick victory over Italy’s Angela Carini yesterday, the Yu-Ting-Turdibekova fight was more tactical – the boxers leapt around the ring in the first round, sizing each other up – than brutal. Yu-Ting attacked with a series of punches in the second round, and when the referees announced the decision, both Yu-Ting and Turdibekova paid tribute to each other’s corners. However, they did not warmly embrace or acknowledge each other’s efforts, as other fighters did on Friday.
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The gender battle in boxing took over the Paris Games. International Boxing Association (IBA) President Umar Kremlev told a Russian news agency last year that tests proved that Khelif, as well as Algerian Imane Khelif “had XY chromosomes and were therefore excluded” from the World Championships. IBA Women’s 2023 New Delhi. But the International Olympic Committee stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s world governing body last year and is essentially running the sport here in Paris, just as it did in Tokyo when the IOC suspended the IBA. The IOC’s decision to allow Yu-Ting and Khelif to fight at the Games sparked outrage in some circles, especially after Italian Carini withdrew from her fight with Khelif yesterday after just 46 seconds.
“A young boxer had everything she worked for and trained stolen because you allowed a man to enter the ring with her,” author JK Rowling tweeted in response to a video in which an IOC official extols the mental health services available to athletes. “You are a disgrace, your ‘safeguard’ is a joke and #Paris24 will forever be stained by the brutal injustice committed to Carini.” (Taiwan social media users, in support of Yu-Ting, responded to the Harry Potter writer on social media.)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also joined the fray. “A real woman [sic]Angela Carini, who trained in boxing for years at the Olympics, is “defeated” by a real man pretending to be a woman,” she said.wrote to his 3.5 million followers on X. “HE is a fraud, an impostor and a liar. Shame on EVERYONE who allows men to compete against women. Democrats support this.” Meanwhile, Khelif’s supporters have pointed out that she was born in Algeria, a country where it is illegal to be gay or transgender. And Carini said her withdrawal was not a political statement: Khelif’s punch hurt her nose and face, she respected the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif to fight, and she apologized for not shaking Khelif’s hand.
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“I was angry because my Olympics went up in smoke,” she saidaccording to the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I have nothing against Khelif. In fact, if I met her again, I would hug her.”
The IOC reiterated on Friday who neither Khelif nor Yu-Ting identified as transgender. (No boxers identify as intersex.) “This is not a transgender case,” spokesman Mark Adams said in Paris. Khelif, Adams said, “was born a woman, was registered as a woman, lived her life as a woman, boxed as a woman, has a female passport.” According to Taiwan News, New Taipei City Councilor Cho Kuan-ting said in Facebook that Yu-Ting was registered as female at birth.
Khelif won the silver medal in 2022 IBA Championships; Both Khelif and Yu-Ting competed at the Tokyo Olympics. Neither boxer won a medal. Adams questioned the veracity and protocol of the boxers’ unspecified IBA test; he said both athletes had been targets of online abuse and called for a calming of the heated rhetoric.
“People are fully entitled to their opinions,” Adams said. “The only appeal I would make is for people to make these opinions clear based on knowledge. Correct knowledge. I’ve seen a lot of misinformation out there, especially on social media. Which is harmful, if you put yourself in the position of those two boxers. Being put in the public spotlight on this issue, I think is very emotionally damaging for them.”
Although the crowd at Friday’s fight seemed generally supportive, cheering Yu-Ting when the announcer introduced her at the start of the match, she rushed past reporters after her victory. Turdibekova also did not stop to speak to reporters. Michaela Walsh of Ireland, after losing to Svetlana Kamenova of Bulgaria, told reporters that she was not paying attention to the fight. USA’s Alyssa Mendoza declined to comment following her loss to Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu, while Romeu stated she is only focused on her medal hopes.
International interest in this story created a comical scene in boxing’s “Mixed Zone,” or media interview area: Dozens of journalists, with iPhone recorders, gathered around a fellow reporter who was trying to translate comments, in Chinese, from the book by Yu-Ting. trainer. We were all recording an interpretation of another recording, desperate for any scrap. None of this added much to the discussion.
Boxing’s governance issues have threatened the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which is a shame: The Olympics helped launch the careers of all-time greats like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar de la Hoya. The IOC has accused the IBA lack of transparency regarding the state of its financial relationship with Gazprom, the Russian state energy company. The IBA said the IOC showed “zero respect for an independent and fully functioning International Federation, along with its members, managers, coaches and, most importantly, our boxers.” Under current Olympic rules, Yu-Ting and Khelif can compete because they are listed as women on their passports.
Khelif faces Anna Luca Hamori, from Hungary, in the quarter-finals of the under-66 kg category, tomorrow. On Sunday, Yu-Ting and Kamenova of Bulgaria will fight in the 57 kg quarterfinals.
This case is complicated and requires nuance. Fake outrage doesn’t help anyone in the ring.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
