Boxer’s gesture goes viral after she loses amid gender controversy

Bulgarian boxer Svetlana Staneva went viral for a gesture she made after losing her match at the Summer Olympics in Paris over the weekend.

Staneva was defeated by Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting in the quarterfinals of the women’s 57kg division on Sunday. Yu-ting is one of the boxers who has been involved in the major gender controversy at the Olympics, as she and Algeria’s Imane Khelif were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi last year after they failed gender eligibility tests.

After losing to Yu-ting, Staneva pointed to herself and then held up an “X” gesture with her hands and tapped them together twice.

Staneva was likely making a gesture for “XX” — or female — chromosomes.

The International Boxing Association has not disclosed the results of the tests that resulted in Khelif and Yu-ting being disqualified from the World Championships. The IBA said in a statement last week that the results “conclusively indicated” that Khelif and Yu-ting “did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”

In an interview with a Russian news outlet last year, IBA president Umar Kremlev said testing proved that Khelif and Yu-ting “had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded.”

The gender controversy in Paris gained significant attention last week when Italy’s Angela Carini quit 46 seconds into her fight against Khelif . The IBA later made a big move to support Carini .

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