A second boxer, who was disqualified by the International Boxing Association during last year’s world championships, is going viral for physically pummeling an opponent to tears in a female event at the Paris Games.
On Friday, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting beat Uzbekistani boxer Sitora Turdibekova across three rounds in the Olympic women’s preliminaries for featherweight fighters.
This marked the second day in a row a female was beaten to tears by an opponent disqualified by boxing’s governing body.
Video being circulated on social media highlights Friday’s lopsided bout, capturing the public’s outrage over the violently outmatched fights.
Lin Yu-ting, a Taiwanese boxer who was banned from the Women’s World Boxing Championships after testing positive for XY chromosomes just punched female boxer Sitora Turdibekova in the face on live TV.
He was declared the winner.
Yu-ting is not a winner. He is a cheater. pic.twitter.com/hhjjrRVpJW
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 2, 2024
In one of the videos now going viral, Turdibekova can be seen wiping away tears after suffering three rounds’ worth of punishing blows.
????BREAKING????
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting has won against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova, beating her in all three rounds of the Women’s Featherweight Boxing preliminary.
Lin had previously been disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championship for having “XY chromosomes.” https://t.co/Cm7BaIzvfW pic.twitter.com/Owm1novomq
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) August 2, 2024
The scene is hauntingly similar to what played out a day before.
On Thursday, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif savaged Italian competitor Angela Carini.
Khelif landed cripplingly powerful hits on Carini in the first few seconds of the match, forcing the woman to forfeit the bout in less than a minute. After the fight’s conclusion, a devastated Carini reportedly cried, “It’s not fair” in Italian.
Two days before Yu-ting’s fight and just a day before Khelif’s, the IBA released a bombshell statement regarding the athletes’ inclusion in women’s Olympic events.
“On 24 March 2023, IBA disqualified athletes Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi 2023,” the IBA said in its Wednesday release. “This disqualification was a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations.”
The association said the disqualification was necessary to “uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition.”
Unspecified tests were conducted by the IBA, which found both boxers failing the standard for fair competition in female events. The association did not measure testosterone levels.
“This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA revealed.
Speaking to a Russian outlet just a day after the IBA’s 2023 disqualification of Khelif and Yu-ting, association leadership spoke on the factors leading to the decision.
“Based on the results of DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women,” IBA president Umar Kremlev told TASS. “Based on the results of the tests, it was proven that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from the competition.”
Other evidence indicates Kremlev’s assessment may not be entirely correct — the athletes reportedly have an exceedingly rare medical condition known as Differences of Sexual Development.
The truth of the matter, whatever it may be, cannot be conclusively known with what little information the public is being given.