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.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RSS