Over the past two weeks, the journeys of Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) and Algeria’s Imane Khelif have been intertwined because of accusations made against them by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after both were disqualified from last year’s IBA Women’s World Boxing for allegedly failing an undisclosed gender eligibility test.
Unlike Khelif, who after winning gold at the Paris Olympics on Friday said that she is “a woman like any other woman,” Lin has stayed off social media and joined her coach Tseng Tzu-chiang (曾自強) in punching the mat after her victory on Saturday.
Later, Tseng said that this meant: “What occurs in the ring, we deal with in the ring.”
Photo: CNA
Also noteworthy was Lin’s response to Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman — her opponents in the quarter-final and semi-final bouts respectively — after they formed an “X” with their index fingers to suggest that they have a pair of X chromosomes while Lin does not.
Rather than criticizing the act as unsportsmanlike, Lin praised them as “respectful rivals.”
“From the first to the last bout, [Lin] always chose to overcome the world’s hostility with kindness, proving herself in the ring with her skills and prowess,” said Blue Wei (魏楚育), an anchor for Taiwan’s ELTA TV.
Critics such as J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, suggested Khelif and Lin could overpower their opponents with their supposed strength, but a closer look at Lin’s approach to her bouts shows how such misconceptions have blinded people from appreciating her skill as a boxer.
At 1.75m, Lin was taller than most of her opponents in Paris, except for Staneva who is also 1.75m.
In those bouts, Lin typically avoided punches with agile footwork and head movements, while landing counterpunches, capitalizing on her longer reach.
“Lin Yu-ting’s power is not particularly significant in her division,” said Akon Su (蘇孝肯), an adviser to the Carry Fighting Championship, Taiwan’s first international pro boxing league.
“Strength is important, but not the most important factor. Skill, speed and stamina are the keys,” Su said, adding that Lin’s relatively long reach and skills often give her an edge.
Before Lin made a name for herself, she was just a girl who wanted to protect her mother from domestic violence. That desire motivated her to join a boxing club in junior-high school, where she met her first and current coach, Tseng.
Prior to the Olympics, Lin said that Tseng is a “very considerate man” who cares about the athlete and the person, and has taught her many life lessons.
She did not hesitate to say that she sees Tseng as a father figure, even joking that he is “often more nagging than my mom.”
Lin said it was Tseng who raised the funds for her first trip overseas, during which they visited the venue of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “sowing a seed in my mind.”
“He told me: ‘Your dream depends on how big your heart is,’ and that made me more determined to go beyond my limits and compete on the Olympic stage,” Lin said.
The bond between Lin and Tseng was epitomized in 2016 when Lin was ousted from a qualifying event for the Rio Olympics.
Tseng said a new coach might help, but Lin simply said: “No.”
“She said: ‘Coach, are you leaving me?’ Even today, I still get emotional when I think about this,” Tseng said.
Lin is a boxer who always responds well to adversity, in and out of the ring, and winning an Olympic gold amid misconceptions about her gender, was proof of that, he said.
He even thanked Rowling for speaking out.
“J.K. Rowling, thank you, I [really] like you,” Tseng said after Saturday’s bout, referring to the author as “a truly magical writer.”
“Thank you for your baseless attacks. The world has seen the pride of Taiwan because of you, and you have helped Taiwan’s female boxers achieve such an amazing result,” he said.
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