A rebuttal to the burgeoning maelstrom of Russian disinformation
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) took up boxing at the age of 13 to defend her mother from domestic abuse. Now 28, she is a two-time world champion competing in her second-ever Olympic Games in hope of completing the coveted amateur boxing grand slam. She is also the subject of intense disinformation and misguided hatred because a number of irresponsible media outlets have erroneously called her a “man” by placing their confidence in one single Russian individual’s unsubstantiated allegations.
1. Lin is a woman.
The rumor about her having “XY chromosomes” was started by Russian official Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), an agency disavowed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over corruption and ethical issues. He claimed that he held “DNA tests” on athletes who “pretended to be women.” He offered no proof then and now.
Kremlev’s March 25, 2023 comments on Telegram were then amplified by Russian news agency TASS and taken at point value by international media. No official IBA press release has stated anything about DNA tests or XY chromosomes. The IBA’s official stance is that Lin failed to “meet eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition” but has yet to elaborate upon its criteria.
Prior to the witch hunt triggered by Kremlev’s words — including transgender allegations that have been denied by IOC President Thomas Bach on Aug 3 — Lin’s eligibility as a woman boxer has been proven repeatedly by competing in international sporting events for over a decade.
2. Lin has petitioned the IBA’s decision (but the IBA did not accept it).
This is contrary to what the IBA presents to the public, so we can safely assume that the IBA is being dishonest in its July 31 statement saying “Lin Yu-ting did not appeal the IBA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), thus rendering the decision legally binding.”
The IBA refuses to this day to release any details pertaining to even what kind of test Lin was subjected to. It has only admitted to not administering a testosterone test but rather a “recognized test” of sorts, “whereby the specifics remain confidential.”
Lin attempted to petition the IBA last March after undergoing several examinations that passed the scrutiny of Taiwan’s Sports Administration: “The IBA never gave me a chance to clear my name.”
3. Lin’s qualifications has been reaffirmed by the IOC.
The IOC defended female boxers Lin and Imane Khelif’s right “to practice sport without discrimination,” stating they “were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA” and that the committee “is saddened by the abuse” Lin and Khelif are receiving.
The Aug 2 statement from the governing body of the Olympic Games refers to how Lin was forcibly stripped of her bronze medal at the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi moments before taking the podium. Khelif, of Algeria, is another woman boxer being falsely accused of being a man by Russia’s Kremlev.
It is some cosmic coincidence that after winning unanimously against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova on Aug 2, Lin will face Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva in her next Olympic match. The very Staneva that received the bronze medal that was stripped from Lin last year.
4. Lin has the support of USA Boxing’s executive director.
Mike McAtee told the Washington Post that “there have never been allegations of the women [Lin and Khelif] having higher-than-average levels of testosterone that might give them an inherent physical advantage over other female fighters” until Kremlev attempted to disrupt the Paris Olympics.
The former and current head of states of Taiwan are also vouching for the 175cm-tall boxer. President Tsai Ing-wen described Lin as “an athlete who is fearless in the face of challenges” and President William Lai Ching-te stated “we firmly and proudly support her.”
DUBUNKING THE AMPLIFYER
Now we’ve cleared the facts, let’s take a look at the claims by a certain amplifier of the IBA’s allegations, specifically Reduxx, an online magazine based in Saint John, Canada that distributed on July 27 the sensationally misleading article titled “BREAKING: TWO ‘Female Boxers’ Set To Compete At Paris 2024 Were Previously Disqualified From Women’s World Championship For Having ‘XY Chromosomes’” that ignited this maelstrom of hateful misinformation.
What Reduxx does is “fill in the blanks” for the IBA. It cannot speak for the IBA, however, and its statements can only be seen as creative attempts to connect the dots to favor its agenda. For example:
- Its sole source of the ‘XY Chromosomes’ claim comes from Kremlev and Kremlev alone. The IBA has not publicly stated this.
- Its assertions that the IBA used a “chromosomal” test on Lin and Khelif is based on its own readings of the IBA’s 2024 guidelines, which were uploaded onto the association’s website on March 3. The IBA has not publicly stated this.
- Lin and Khelif were forced out of a competition in 2023, based on older guidelines that no longer exist on the IBA website. Moreover, Lin was told that she was disqualified for testosterone-related reasons. Yet the IBA’s July 31 statement says that the athletes “did not undergo a testosterone examination.”
- Its assertions that Lin could just ask the laboratories to release the test result is faulty at best. Because this hinges on one crucial fact — Lin was forced to sign papers without being informed of their content by the IBA in New Delhi last year. It was a moment she described as “ the first time I ever felt bad about having to sign my name.”
- Its assertions based on the IBA’s July 31 statement that “Lin Yu-ting did not appeal the IBA’s decision” is false. According to Lin’s coach, they appealed the decision, but the IBA rejected the appeal.
- Finally, the magazine stressed that the IBA will be sued if it released the test results due to medical privacy reasons. Following this logic, this means that Kremlev can be sued for making the alleged test results public by posting on Telegram and talking to Russian state media.
Perhaps, instead of amplifying the pro-Kremlin IBA President Kremlev’s attempts to smear hardworking women athletes who’ve trained earnestly their whole lives, sports journalists should be looking into why the IBA was so comfortably reliant on funds from Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom for so long, and who and what factions have to gain from tarnishing the reputation of the Olympic Games and discrediting the IOC.
It would be nice to have more in-depth reportage on the ongoing string of state-sanctioned doping scandals involving athletes from Russia and China (cue the tainted strawberry desserts, steroid burgers, and medicated horses), too, given the fundamental Olympic code of integrity.
Above all, what of the immense damage already wrought to Lin Yu-ting’s reputation? Will editorial corrections ever be issued? Will celebrities like J.K. Rowling, Boris Becker, Barry McGuigan, and Elon Musk ever even bother to apologize?
STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT
- “You are capable of achieving the highest glory in sports, I hope you will not be swayed by this wave of tactical aggression!” — Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) of Taiwan’s Sports Administration
- “We expect her to bring her best to the ring; let us cheer for Lin, for we are all on Team Taiwan!” — President Lin Hong-dow (林鴻道) of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee
- “As someone who is familiar with Lin’s sheer dedication to training, I am feeling upset… I really dislike how there are certain individuals who, without taking into account professional voices, dare say comments like ‘It’s a man beating up a woman!’ that undermine an athlete’s dignity.” — Olympic Gold Medalist Boxer Sena Irie (入江聖奈) from Japan
- “Our boxer has been a girl since birth. She’ll keep rocking the ring.” — Taiwanese Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋)
