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.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS