OLYMPICS/Lin Yu-ting receives call from President Lai following historic gold

Paris, Aug. 11 (CNA) Newly crowned Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) spoke with President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) for 10 minutes in a congratulatory phone call, an experience the champ described as "nerve-wracking."

Lin won the country's first-ever Olympic boxing gold medal on Saturday after defeating Julia Szeremeta of Poland by a 5-0 unanimous decision in the women's featherweight division.

The 28-year-old's medal win also boosted Taiwan's medal haul to two golds and five bronzes.

For winning gold, Lin was invited to the Taipei Representative Office in France, where Taiwan's representative to France François Wu (吳志中) passed on a congratulatory message from Lai.

After celebrations and media interviews, Lin was summoned to take a video call with Lai, which lasted around 10 minutes.

“We were all very inspired watching you. You’ve endured quite a bit," the president told Lin. 

Lai said although Lin faced unwarranted attacks during the Olympics, he was glad that she overcame these baseless criticisms with her stellar performance, and that her achievements increased Taiwan's international visibility. 

Lin told reporters later that the president guaranteed that she would have the backing of the government should any problem arise.

"President Lai was also concerned about my emotional well-being and my recent experience. (He talked) also about my plans after the competition and was very interested in our future," she said.

The new Olympic champ also thanked her coach Tseng Tzu-chiang (曾自強) for sticking with her through thick and thin.

She said she was dependent on Tseng to help her process her feelings as she had not yet wanted to contact her mother after the win for fear of stirring up strong emotions.

"Without him (Tseng), there's no Lin Yu-ting," she said. "I'm grateful to the coach for tirelessly accompanying me through my journey, going as far as to leave his family behind in Taiwan to travel and fight for a dream of Olympic gold."