By Aadi Nair
PARIS (Reuters) – A gender eligibility dispute involving two women boxers, the threat of the axe hanging over it as an Olympic sport, and Uzbek dominance inside the ring combined to make for a boxing tournament unlike any other at the Paris Olympics.
The competition was overshadowed somewhat by the drama involving Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, with two weeks of headlines and social media debate over their eligibility.
The two were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which said sex chromosome tests had ruled them ineligible. But they competed in Paris after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA of its status and organised the boxing itself.
Khelif and Lin won gold medals in their events, sparking further outcry and renewing questions over whether athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) should compete in women’s competitions.
Inside the ring, Uzbekistan and China won five medals apiece – and all of them gold in Uzbekistan’s case.
Uzbekistan also finished top in boxing in Rio with seven medals, but it had an Olympics to forget in Tokyo, where it won only one.
But with five golds from seven men’s categories this time around, they more than made up for Tokyo and reminded the world of the talent at their disposal.
Defending super heavyweight champion Bakhodir Jalolov and featherweight Abdumalik Khalokov strolled to victory, while Rio light flyweight champion Hasanboy Dusmatov stepped up a weight class to add another gold medal to his cabinet.
“No other country participating today has such results. It’s the result of our hard work,” Jalolov said.
By contrast, Cuba’s haul of two medals was underwhelming for a country which has established itself as an amateur boxing powerhouse.
Twice Olympic champion Arlen Lopez Cardona (bronze) and Erislandy Alvarez (gold) saved Cuba from their worst Olympics showing since Mexico 1968, when they collected two silvers.
The women’s contest, expanded to six weight categories from five in Tokyo, was dominated by China, who won three golds and two silvers.
Bantamweight Chang Yuan became the first woman boxer to win Olympic gold for China on Thursday, with Wu Yu clinching flyweight gold on Friday and Li Qian completing the hat-trick by winning the women’s middleweight boxing final on the last day of the tournament.
Boxing may be over, but the sport’s biggest fight begins now as it looks to keep its place for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and appoint a new governing body by next year.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Paris; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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