Taiwanese featherweight boxer Lin Yu-ting heads to the gold medal match at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, as her government vowed to take legal action against the International Boxing Association and hit back at Russia for casting doubts on her gender.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's administration is threatening legal action as sports officials on the democratic island lawyer up following widespread online abuse of Lin, who beat Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey in the semi-final on Wednesday. She will face Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the gold medal final bout on Saturday.
"I've gotten this far after being eliminated in the first round of the last competition, and now I have finally made it to the final," Lin told journalists in Paris following her win on Wednesday.
"I will be using everything I have learned throughout my life to do my absolute best in the match, and hopefully achieve my dream of winning the gold medal," she said.
The island's foreign ministry on Friday condemned Russia after one of its senior diplomats claimed Lin had "failed hormonal tests" and misidentified her as a man.
It said the International Olympics Committee had revoked the International Boxing Federation's right to organize Olympic boxing events, and its status as a world governing body, as well as publicly confirming Lin's eligibility "many times."
Russian fallacies
The ministry accused Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy of "abusing the Security Council venue to publish fallacies that have nothing to do with maintaining international peace and security."
"This fully highlights Russia's disregard for international rules and justice and its intention to influence the Olympic Games with political power, as well as its arrogance," the ministry said in a statement on its official website.
Both Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif have been subjected to intense scrutiny, criticism and bullying online since the start of the Olympic Games. Khelif has called for an end to the bullying, saying “it destroys people.”
Both were disqualified ahead of the International Boxing Association World Championships last year for "failing eligibility criteria," but the IBA hasn't said which tests were carried out.
The International Olympics Committee, or IOC, has said both women are eligible to compete in the Olympics, while IOC President Thomas Bach has dismissed the online furor as "hate speech."
"We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman," Bach told journalists on Aug. 3. "There was never any doubt about them being a woman."
"What is going on in this context in social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable," he said.
Turkey's Kahraman made an "X" gesture with her fingers after losing to Lin, which many on social media interpreted as a reference to inaccurate claims about Lin's gender. She declined to explain the meaning of the gesture when asked by journalists.
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‘Talking nonsense’
Taiwanese boxing coach Li Wunan, honorary chairman of the Taiwan Boxing Association, said he has trained Lin since she was 13.
"I know very well that she is a woman," he told journalists on Aug. 7, adding that her critics on social media were "talking nonsense."
President Lai Ching-te said via his Facebook page that "there is no doubt regarding Lin's eligibility," and that she has the full backing of the government, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported this week.
Lai also "expressed his admiration and support for Lin for not caving into pressure" as she prepares for a match that could net Taiwan its first gold medal in Olympic boxing, the report said.
LGBTQ+ athletes, officials and observers have warned that a deluge of hateful comments misidentifying female boxer Imane Khelif in the Paris Olympics as transgender or a man could pose dangers for the LGBTQ+ community and female athletes in general, the Associated Press reported from Paris on Aug. 3.
The concerns come as famous figures — from former U.S. President Donald Trump to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling — have railed against the Algerian boxer after her Italian competitor Angela Carini quit their bout Thursday. They and other social media comments falsely claimed Khelif was a man fighting a woman, the agency said.
Former athletes like Belgium’s Charline Van Snick, 33, a former judo medalist in the 2012 Games, said the testing and comments about women’s bodies are undoing years of work by female athletes to push back against stigma, it said.
"There are some women with more testosterone, or different kinds of body," AP quoted Van Snick as saying. "In judo, you are fighting, and you have to stay a woman, what is accepted of a woman. If you look too much like a man, they say, ‘Oh, she’s a man.’ But I’m a woman who could beat a man in the sport."
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.