Uzbek boxer Sitora Turdibekova was photographed leaving the ring in tears after losing an Olympic boxing match to Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting.
Turdibekova received heavy blows from her opponent in the ring and lost points, while she burst into tears in the ring.
She was still crying as she left after her loss to Yu-ting, one of two boxers disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championship for failing a gender test.
Turdibekova also decided not to shake Yu-Ting’s hand after the bell.
Yu-Ting, a two-time gold medalist at the World and Asian Championships who reportedly has 40 wins and 14 losses in his amateur career, was considered the highest-ranked player in the event.
Uzbek boxer Sitora Turdibekova was seen crying after her loss to Lin Yu-Ting
Turdibekova could not hold back her tears after losing to the boxer, who failed a gender eligibility test for the Women’s World Boxing Championship last year.
Yu-ting (pictured) won her opening bout in the women’s featherweight boxing event
Yu-ting secured a unanimous decision victory over Turdibekova (right) at the North Paris Arena
Yu-Ting’s victory comes a day after controversy erupted when Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the women’s welterweight event amid a row over eligibility requirements.
Carini was punched twice by Khelif in the opening round of their women’s welterweight bout in Paris.
The blows appeared to knock off the Italian boxer’s chin strap, sending the fighter running to her corner.
Carini returned to the center of the ring and left the match, with Khelif being declared the winner.
The Italian boxer, who claimed before the match that she could “only adapt to the rules of the Olympic Games”, was subsequently seen crying in the middle of the ring after the match’s abrupt end.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) – which lost its recognition amid a series of governance problems – disqualified Khelif and Lin from the Women’s World Boxing Championships last year.
Lin won the bronze medal after winning three fights before losing in the semi-finals to Kazakhstan’s Karina Ibragimova.
The IBA later stripped Lin of his medal, stating the boxer did not meet the eligibility requirements.
Turdibekova struggled to contain her emotions as the judges’ scores were read out
She also refused to shake hands with her controversial opponent after the defeat
The IBA said the tests were conducted during the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and that Lin has not appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
According to feminist website Reduxx, both sexes are said to suffer from difference in sex development (DSD), a set of medical conditions diagnosed at birth in which the genitals are atypical in relation to chromosomes.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) said in a statement on Wednesday that the decisions were made “after careful assessment.”
The IBA said neither athlete had undergone a testosterone test, but that they were instead “subject to a separate and recognised test” administered at their 2022 and 2023 world championships.
It is claimed that the tests ‘conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required eligibility criteria’, with both boxers ‘having a competitive advantage over other female competitors.’
The IBA slammed the IOC, saying the divergent rules “raise serious questions about both the fairness of competition and the safety of athletes.”
The IBA is not responsible for the IOC withdrawing its recognition of the Olympic competition due to ongoing governance problems. The organization has established the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit to organize the event.
The IOC issued a similarly strong statement in response on Friday: “All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the eligibility and participation regulations of the competition, as well as with all applicable medical regulations established by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit in relation to previous Olympic boxing competitions. The gender and age of the athletes are based on their passports.
The International Boxing Association, led by chairman Umar Kremlev, had disqualified both Lin and Khelif from the world championships for failing to pass the entry tests.
‘Towards the end of the 2023 IBA World Championships, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process. According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially made solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO.’
They added: “The current aggression against these two athletes is entirely based on this arbitrary decision, taken without any due process, especially considering that these athletes have been competing at the highest level for many years,” the statement continued.
The Boxing Unit has approved the participation of both boxers under the rules that apply to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. These rules are less strict than those of the IBA.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams warned of a “witch hunt” against the two boxers who were cleared to compete in Paris and criticized the inaccurate reporting. He stressed that the cases are not a transgender issue.
Adams had called for the rhetoric to be “scaled back”, adding that they were “completely comfortable with the rules” previously used at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.