It has been a rollercoaster of a year for Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷), a Taiwanese athlete who celebrates her 29th birthday this month after fighting hard battle after battle to capture the first Olympic gold medal of her career. Her Paris 2024 journey was burdened by extraordinary complications like being mis-gendered by American President-elect Donald J. Trump and personally attacked by the British boy wizard author J.K. Rowling, due to their susceptibility to Russian disinformation campaigns. Lin proved to be mighty resilient and stood her ground, winning a plethora of endorsement deals and even shout-outs from two Taiwanese presidents. Here are the top nine Lin Yu-ting stories of 2024.
1. She won gold at Paris Olympics 2024
Lin on sobbing upon winning: “I saw images flashing and I thought about the beginning of my career when I started boxing. All the difficult practices, the times that I got injured, the competitors I fought against. All these images flashed in my head. There are times of great pain. There are times of great joy. I cried because I was so touched.”
Several rivals originally signaled “X” by crossing two fingers upon losing to Lin, in a misguided attempt to signal they were the only women in the ring — except they’re not, for Lin’s biological gender is attested by her household registration papers from birth, lifelong Taiwanese passport, and a decade of standardized tests conducted by international boxing matches throughout her career.
The Taiwanese boxer proved to be the more technically proficient athlete, alternating between orthodox and southpaw to win four hard bouts of scrappy matches in Paris against opponents from Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Poland. “Every fight is not easy,” Lin said. “Winning 5–0 might seem easy, but behind that is a lot of practice and hard work.”
On the podium, Lin received hugs from both bronze medalist Esra Yildiz Kahraman, who previously gestured the hateful “X” while representing Turkey on the world stage, and Julia Atena Szeremeta, her Polish opponent in the featherweight finale who made a heart sign to thank her supporters. Subsequent social media posts picture all three female boxers smiling together backstage.
2. She was welcomed home from Paris with F-16s
Upon presidential decree, Lin and the Taiwanese delegation to the 2024 Summer Olympics were welcomed home from Paris with three F-16 fighter jets that intermittently issued celebratory flares. Their chartered EVA plane received a hero’s escort because the combined haul of seven medals — two gold, five bronze — was Taiwan’s second-best performance at the Olympics.
The Olympians were then treated to a ticker-tape parade and a special visit to the Presidential Office for placing 35th in medal tally out of the 206 teams that competed this year. Accompanied by a military motorcade and several marching bands, Lin rode on a jeep with her boxing mentor in the 1.5-kilometer “Heroes of Taiwan” parade in central Taipei that featured athletes, referees, coaches, and family members.
The Taiwan president noted that Lin has won the respect and adoration of the Taiwanese public, for she not only excelled in the boxing ring this summer but also embodied the true spirit of sportsmanship by handling personal attacks with “dignity and grace.”
Lin also received NT$20.9 million (around US$637,000) per Taiwan’s rewarding scheme, the Guo Guang Athletic Scholarships, for scoring gold at the 2024 Olympics and bronze at the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships. The Taiwanese government decided to award prize money for the latter in protest of Lin’s medal being withdrawn under controversial circumstances (more below).
3. She was a target of Russian disinformation
Why all the personal attacks? It turns out that the discredited rumors of Lin being transgender or biologically male were seeded by Russian misinformation campaigns. Umar Kremlev, the Russian president of the Gazprom-fueled International Boxing Association (IBA) with close Vladimir Putin ties, was the progenitor of such unwarranted accusations.
Kremlev, who changed his name from Umar Lutfuloev to distance himself from his past criminal record of being twice convicted of racketeering, first alleged on Russian state media that “XY chromosome” test results invalidated Lin’s bronze-medal victory at the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi. In retort, the governing body of the Olympic Games described her as a victim of “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” that was “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it.”
The IBA’s empty rhetoric over the test being conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is absolutely moot since WADA does not oversee gender tests. Moreover, a car-crash of a manel presser convened by the Russian boxing kingpin in Paris further disproved his words, as his henchmen proceeded to contradict each other with claims like “I know who is woman and man” or that Lin was a male due to “looks.”
Harrowingly, the false allegations have reached the inner chambers of the United Nations itself, with Russian envoy Dmitry Polyanskly belittling Lin as a “man” and arguing the Olympic movement was monopolized by the West’s “LGBT agenda.” What’s actually ludicrously factual is how Taiwan is not only barred from having UN representation, Taiwanese citizens cannot enter the UN New York headquarters even as tourists.
4. She was mis-gendered by Donald Trump
Kremlev’s invalid claims were amplified by Reduxx, a transphobic website parroting Russian talking points that were surprisingly picked up by prominent figures like Harry Potter’s JK Rowling, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Florida’s Donald Trump. Reduxx also published a hate piece on acclaimed Taiwanese fiction writer Li Kotomi (李琴峰) last month.
Despite the IBA being formally disqualified by the International Olympics Committee, meaning it has been stripped of its eligibility to host Olympic-qualifying events, its oligarch leader’s unsubstantiated allegations have captured the imagination of conspiracists and MAGA supporters alike.
The Russian rhetoric was so effective that Trump repeatedly courted anti-trans votes by pledging to “KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS!” on Truth Social and telling Fox News that “There will be no men playing in women’s sports when we’re elected.” His running mate, VP-elect JD Vance, labelled the Olympic victory of another wrongly targeted woman athlete, Imane Khelif of Algeria, “disgusting.”
The incredibly level-headed Lin has elected to take the higher road, choosing not to pursuit defamation lawsuits or engage in social media flame wars. “Thanks to that ‘friend’ for letting everyone get to know me,” she jokingly said in regards to Rowling the muggle writer, but reiterated that “I don’t need to prove anything to the world.”
5. She counts among her fans two Taiwan presidents
The former and current heads of state of Taiwan are vouching for Lin. “When I met boxer Lin Yu-ting, I saw an athlete who is fearless in the face of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring,” Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first woman president, stated on social media during the height of the so-called Olympic boxing gender row.
Current President William Lai Ching-te, who video-called Lin in Paris after she captured Olympic gold, helped preserve her hard-earned victory for posterity by including Lin in his national day address on Oct. 10. He acknowledged the 29-year-old athlete as “a daughter of Taiwan” and “a queen of the boxing world” in a speech recognizing the courageousness of the Taiwanese.
“Taiwanese women are tough and resilient.” Bi-khim Hsiao, the second-ever woman to serve as the country’s vice president, did not mince her words either. Pointing out how a total of three women boxers from Taiwan scored medals at Paris 2024, Hsiao ended her supportive tweet with: “You go, girl! 💪❤”
“Lin showed the resilience of a New Taipei City girl,” wrote Eric Chu, former New Taipei mayor and chair of opposition party Kuomintang, on Facebook after her victory. “Thank you for uniting Taiwan.” The city government of New Taipei, where the boxer calls home, has formally declared Aug. 12 to be “Lin Yu-ting Day (林郁婷日)” to commemorate her historic win.
6. She became an anti-bullying ambassador
Lin accepted the Ministry of Education’s offer of ambassadorship upon returning to Taiwan. Her full title is “Anti-Bullying Goodwill Ambassador.” It is a particularly poignant role for Lin, who picked up boxing as a young child to defend her mom from domestic abuse.
“The bullying incidents and online attacks during the Olympics have made us more aware of the importance of anti-bullying efforts,” Education Minister Zheng Ying-yao stated. “Athlete Yu-Ting, with her achievements and courage, has become a beacon in the fight against bullying, and we are honored to invite her as a goodwill ambassador.”
The ministry hopes that “the strength of this Taiwanese daughter will encourage more schools to actively combat bullying, ensuring every student can learn and grow in a safe and friendly environment.”
In a nod to diverse representation and female empowerment, she also became a Vogue Taiwan cover girl, a face of Taipei Fashion Week SS25, a spokesperson for a menstrual product, a representative for a charity’s senior citizen engagement program, and a flagbearer for Team Taiwan at the Olympics closing ceremony this year.
7. She now trains for future fights at a higher weight class
After completing the coveted amateur boxing grand slam by winning Olympic gold as a featherweight boxer, the 175-cm-tall Lin is now dedicated to challenging her personal best by moving up one weight class — from 57kg to 60kg.
Ahead of the World Boxing Cup Finals in November, she said: “I wanted to challenge myself in a new weight class, that is, to unlock a new division and see how I would perform at that level. It’s kind of like giving myself a check point. There would be more scrutiny, and of course it would come with higher pressure.”
Her coach opted to pull Lin out of the Sheffield event in protest, however, after the World Boxing Association (WBA) questioned her eligibility and denied Lin’s offer to undergo a “comprehensive medical examination” on-site in the UK because the WBA medical committee would not have enough time to process the results. Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai called the situation “extremely regrettable.”
Ever the sportswoman, Lin cheered from the sidelines for her fellow Taiwanese boxers, including Lee Cheng-wei (李承威), Lin’s long-term sparring mate who competed in the men’s 57kg quarterfinals, Liu Yu-shan (劉宇珊), who scored bronze in the women’s 50kg division, and Huang Hsiao-wen (黃筱雯), the women’s bantamweight (54kg) champion.
8. She is Taiwan’s best female athlete of the year
The title of Taiwan’s Best Female Athlete was bestowed to Lin at the 2024 Sports Elite Awards ceremony on Dec. 20. She was also a runner up for the Best Sportsmanship Award for showing “her strength in the boxing ring to shatter the gender controversy.”
Best Coach went to Tseng Tzu-chiang (曾自強), for coaching “Lin Yu-ting to gold in women’s boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.” Lin has been training with Tseng for 15 years, and they share a celebratory rite of her giving him a piggyback ride around the ring after every major competition win.
Best Sports Team went to Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) for coming first at men’s badminton doubles in Paris. It was their second Olympic gold medal. Lin shares strong rapport with Lee, giving rise to a delectable nickname combining the second character of their names: Lee’s Yang means “foreign” and Lin’s Yu is homophone for “tater,” so together they are known as “potato chips (洋郁配/洋郁片).”
The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Lee Wu-nan (李武男), a boxing coach who served as vice president of the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) from 1998 to 2006. Credited for reforming Taiwan’s boxing environment and promoting women’s boxing, Lee, 82, began working with Lin when she was 13 and called out her gender-questioning critics for “talking nonsense.”
9. She inspires a new generation of Taiwanese boxers
A golden pillar box now stands outside her alma mater, Yingge Junior High School, dedicated to Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in boxing. There are now popular boxing clubs at all the New Taipei schools where Lin was once a student. They hope to follow in her footsteps one day as an athlete, and shine on the world stage.
This is the fourth Olympic mailbox unveiled by Taiwan’s national postal service, Chunghwa Post; the first is dedicated to weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨), gold medalist in the women’s 53kg division at Rio 2016, whereas the second and third postboxes were erected in honor of the Wang-Lee badminton duo’s success at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Chunghwa Post has also issued a “World Boxing Queen” stamp folio that contains a set of personal greeting stamps and a bilingual dedication to the “Daughter of Taiwan.” The stamps feature six sustainability themes ranging from environmental protection to green innovation, while the folio contains this quote from Lin: “I’d rather bleed outside the ring than shed tears in it.”
At the Dec. 20 unveiling ceremony of the golden pillar box in Yingge District, Lin encouraged the Taiwanese public to take advantage of the country’s dependable postal services, quipping that fans can always write to her, “just address the letter to Yingge Junior High” as she frequently visits her old school to cheer on new recruits.
LIN YU-TING FACTBOX
- Date of birth: Dec. 13, 1995
- Horoscope: Sagittarius
- Hometown: New Taipei, Taiwan
- Lin is not trans. She was born biologically female, and has lived her life as such since.
- She’s comfortable with her androgynous looks and keeps her hair short for practical and training purposes.
- To the many other individuals who are also challenged by society due to their unconventional looks or life choices, she says that it is not worth it to change yourself for other people.
SEE ALSO
Team Taiwan: In defense of woman boxer Lin Yu-ting
- A true powerhouse of a human being targeted by a witch hunt
- A rebuttal to the burgeoning maelstrom of Russian disinformation
- A pawn in one Gazprom-fueled association’s feud against the Olympics
Team Taiwan: The Herculean fallacy of ‘Chinese Taipei’
