Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) yesterday announced that she has accepted a Sports Administration invitation to be the nation’s anti-bullying ambassador and would also assume the post of an assistant professor at Chinese Culture University’s Department of Physical Education starting in the upcoming semester.
Lin, who won a gold medal, and other Taiwanese athletes who competed at the Paris Olympics returned to Taiwan yesterday morning.
Their EVA Airways Flight BR88 was accompanied by three F-16 jets, which also fired thermal bombs to salute the athletes.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
As an assistant professor at the university, Lin would be teaching “boxing” and “sports skill training” in the fall semester, said university president Wang Tzu-chi (王子奇), who greeted Lin upon her arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Lin would also begin pursuing a doctoral degree in sports next month, he said.
“We will fully support Lin in her pursuit for another gold at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028,” Wang said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Lin’s quest for the gold medal was one of the closely watched events at the Olympic Games, as the International Boxing Association (IBA) and multiple celebrities questioned her qualification after she was denied a bronze medal at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in New Delhi last year for having failed a gender eligibility test.
Accusations and protests against Lin did not cease even after the International Olympics Committee on multiple occasions reiterated that Lin was qualified to compete.
The IBA in a news conference in Paris on Monday last week defended its decision to disqualify Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif in New Delhi, although it did not present any evidence to back its claim and added to the confusion.
Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman, whom Lin defeated before reaching the gold-medal bout, raised their hands to make an “X” gesture — an apparent reference to the “X” chromosome — after their losses.
Aside from J.K. Rowling and former world featherweight boxing champion Barry McGuigan, retired tennis player Martina Navratilova also weighed in on the controversy on Sunday, saying: “This is what happens when you let males compete against females.”
“And in boxing in particular you don’t need any technique, really because your punch is so much harder than anything coming at you. Despicable. And dangerous,” she wrote on social media.
Although the Sports Administration vowed to file a lawsuit against the IBA, Lin said that she has no intention to sue the IBA and others as she has proven herself by winning a gold medal.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said he had asked the Ministry of Education to grant Lin a Kuo Kuang medal and NT$900,000 from a Kuo Kuang scholarship fund that she was unable to obtain after her world championship bronze medal was revoked.
The IBA made the decision using inappropriate measures, and the medal and scholarship fund are to show the appreciation and recognition of Lin’s performances in international competition from the nation and Taiwanese, Cho said.
“We respect Lin Yu-ting’s decision not to take further legal action. She has proved to the world that she is a first-rate boxer who has a firm resolve and a tender heart. What a great victory,” he said.
In related news, Cho said that the Cabinet would soon make an announcement about the progress that has been made upgrading the Sports Administration to the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports Development, adding that that the government would speak with athletes to ensure that policies stipulated by the ministry would benefit them.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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