FEATURE/At Olympics, boxer Lin Yu-ting hopes for 'Grand Slam' knockout

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff writer

On Oct. 5, 2023, at the Hangzhou Gymnasium, tears brimmed in Lin Yu-ting's (林郁婷) eyes as the referee raised her arm, declaring her the champion of the women's boxing featherweight (under 57 kilograms) division at the Asian Games.

Exiting the ring, she embraced her coach Tseng Tzu-chiang (曾自強) tightly, repeating, "I did it. I really did it."

No one knew better than Tseng how much Lin had undergone to win that gold medal, and it did not surprise him when Lin, out of the public eye, "broke down in tears on the ground."

When asked at the time about her outburst, Lin compared the scene to her upset loss in the first round at the Tokyo Olympics, noting how differently she had felt three years earlier.

"[At the Olympics] I was heartbroken and couldn't accept the result; today I'm overcome by joy."

But the journey is not over yet, as she explained to CNA in an interview just weeks before her weight class takes to the Olympic ring starting at the end of July in Paris.

With titles in the Asian Championships, Asian Games, and IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, the 28-year-old is now just one Olympic gold away from completing a "Grand Slam" of amateur boxing and will soon have the chance to do it.

Back to the throne

In many respects, Lin's route to victory in Hangzhou, especially her first and last bouts there, symbolized how she has conquered nightmares since 2021.

In her opening fight in the round of 16, she defeated Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines, who had beaten her in the first round of the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and went on to win the silver medal.

"Even today, it still hurts when [that loss] comes to mind," Lin told CNA, saying some of the pain comes from the high expectations she has shouldered.

● Feature/Taiwan at Paris Olympics: Farewells, fresh faces and predictions

● Feature/Decoding history: Taiwan at the Olympics, by the numbers

Though Lin, ranked No. 1 in the world at the time, was widely favored to take gold in the women's featherweight class in Tokyo, she admits now that the stress of being a role model for Taiwan's younger boxers weighed her down.

The crushing blow of unmet expectations in Tokyo nearly drove her to leave the sport, but her "unwavering determination to fulfill her dream," which she referred to as the secret of her strength, kept her in the ring.

"You might feel relieved when you don't have to keep going, but it's hard to give it up because that means all your dedication and efforts over the past decade meant nothing," she said.

Following the Tokyo Olympics, Tseng had Lin back training for domestic qualification for the World Championships after only a day's rest so that she would not dwell on her upset loss.

Completing her master's degree by writing a report on her performance at the 2020 Asia & Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification also helped restore her inner peace, at least to some extent, Lin said.

For competitors such as Lin, however, the best cure for a loss on the big stage is a major win, and it was not until she won the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul that she "somehow" exorcised her demons.

"We had arranged my training routine meticulously, so we did not change it after the Tokyo Olympics despite the loss," she said.

"It was when I won the World Championships that I could tell myself that we had been heading in the right direction in Tokyo, but that the win came a little bit later [than we expected]," she added.

Despite the frustration of Tokyo, Lin said redemption will not be on her mind in Paris.

"This time I want to stay as low-profile as possible and hold the medal firmly to my chest," she said.

Smashing the stigma

If beating Petecio in Hangzhou symbolized Lin's road to recovery from the Tokyo loss, it was the gold medal bout against Karina Ibragimova of Kazakhstan at the Asian Games that may truly have set her free.

Prior to her bout with Ibragimova, the Kazakhstan team challenged, unsuccessfully as it turned out, Lin's gender eligibility, attempting to win without stepping into the ring.

The move undoubtedly reminded Lin, as well as her fans, of what had occurred in New Delhi six months earlier at the 2023 World Championships.

● Feature/Documentary tells story behind Taiwan's 'Chinese Taipei' Olympic name

After Lin finished third in her weight class, the International Boxing Association (IBA), the governing body of amateur boxing, stripped her of her bronze medal because her testosterone level did not meet the designated standard.

In a broader context, the incident was just the latest example of how Lin has been confronted with questions over her femininity for many years, if not decades.

While a follow-up test in Taiwan eventually cleared her name, Tseng told CNA that Lin once came to him when suspicions were rife and "lost it" after reading insults directed at her on social media.

"I told her, 'If you trust me, then give me your mobile phone, say nothing to them, and get some sleep. I will tackle this for you and with you,'" Tseng recalled.

Tseng, who accompanied Lin to see a gynecologist at the Chang Gung Medical Foundation, reflected on how coaching a female athlete differs from coaching a male athlete.

"Even though I've been aware of these differences, I still can't fully understand her experience. This incident made me realize the need for coaches to be better informed in this area," Tseng said, feeling that it brought him closer to his protégé.

Even now, Lin revealed, she sometimes gets asked if she went to the wrong restroom, a perception that might be fed by her height (1.75 meters) and hairstyle (short cut).

Although local media have often framed her success as breaking gender stereotypes, that has never been her goal.

"Actually, what I have been doing is being myself...I want to focus on my performance in the ring," she said.

"If I wore my hair long, I would have to spend too much time tending to it and have no time to rest between morning and afternoon training sessions. How could I perform well that way?"

Given the problems in India, Lin's team had prepared a complete set of documents for Hangzhou to prove her qualifications, and she took gold with a unanimous decision victory.

"All I can do is prepare and try my best to ignore what the haters say. After all, where were they after the Asian Games?" said Lin, now able to stay focused on what goes on inside the ring.

Anticipation and appreciation

Lin said she is particularly indebted to Tseng's mentoring, without which she could not have made it this far.

Having worked with Tseng for around 16 years, Lin said she decided when she first put on the gloves in junior high to follow Tseng throughout her career to wherever he would lead her.

Asked if she had anything to confess to her coach that she had not had a chance to say, Lin believed it was not yet time.

"I don't think it's the proper time to say it now," she said. "If I'm gonna say it out loud, it'll be when I win. Hopefully I'll do it in August."

"When my dream does come true, I will face the camera and say it out to the coach," she said.

Enditem/ls

Focus Taiwan's Paris Games coverage