When the referee raised Lin Yu-ting’s hand at the Paris 2024’s women’s 57kg final, history was made. She had won Taiwan its first ever Olympic gold medal in boxing.
Calling Lin a “daughter of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te was among millions of people celebrating her victory, saying she had made Taiwan proud.
“With admirable focus and discipline, she has overcome misinformation and cyberbullying, turning adversity into victory,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Until several weeks ago, the 28-year-old’s name had been little known to people outside of Taiwan – but the Games have thrust Lin into the spotlight, after she and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif became the centre of a gender eligibility row that engulfed the 2024 Olympics.
Lin and Khelif were allowed to compete in Paris despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships after reportedly failing unspecified gender eligibility tests. IOC judges have justified the decision to include them saying the testing conducted on them by the sport’s now-banned governing body, the International Boxing Association, was “impossibly flawed” and that Lin and Khelif were “born and raised as women”.
However, the decision to include them has proved to be divisive and controversial and the two athletes have been subject to an outpouring of online abuse and criticism.
Some of their fellow competitors were among those criticising their participation, while high profile figures like ex-US President Donald Trump and English author JK Rowling took to social media to decry the decision to let them compete in the women’s categories.
But Taiwanese social media users have been firmly supportive of Lin throughout her Olympic campaign, celebrating her victories and vociferously coming to her defence.
President Lai has previously said that he had asked his administration to pursue legal actions, external over the “malicious attacks and bullying” Lin had suffered.
Online, others echoed his view, saying: “The daughter of Taiwan is protected by the people of Taiwan.”