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.
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
RSS