Lin will face Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman in Wednesday’s semi-finals. Even if she loses she will take home a bronze medal.
Lin and Staneva met in the quarter-finals of last year’s World Championships with Lin winning before she was disqualified. As a result, Staneva was promoted to bronze medallist.
The IBA said Lin had “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out” in its regulations.
But the IOC has strongly defended both Lin and Khelif.
President Thomas Bach said on Saturday: “We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman and who have competed for many years as a woman.
“This is the clear definition of a woman.”
The Russia-led IBA has been suspended by the IOC since 2019 because of concerns over its finances, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging.
In the ring, a scrappy fight threatened to boil over at times with Staneva regularly complaining about Lin’s use of elbows.
She came out swinging in the final round in an attempt to overturn a deficit but was caught by Lin’s blows.
“Svetlana is a professional boxer,” her coach said. “She’s not interested in who is going in the ring against. She wants to fight.”
“In last year’s championship Lin had an advantage by the referee against Svetlana and here she has the advantage [over use of elbows] again.”
The situation, which has sparked wide debate online, could take another turn on Monday after the IBA said it would hold a news conference “dedicated to the detailed explanation of the reasons for the disqualification” of Khelif and Lin at the 2023 World Championships.
Khelif fights in her semi-final on Tuesday.
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