Controversial Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting took up the sport to protect her mother from domestic abuse, MailOnline can reveal.
The two-time world boxing champion is preparing to step into the ring against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova on Friday.
The confrontation between the 28-year-old Lin and the 22-year-old Turdibekova sparked controversy after Lin failed a gender eligibility test at last year’s world championships.
Lin, who entered the Olympics as the top-seeded boxer, was stripped of her bronze medal because she did not meet the International Boxing Federation’s unspecified eligibility criteria.
All eyes are on Lin’s fight with Turdibekova, after yesterday’s dramatic match in which Carini retired after less than a minute and Khelif landed just one punch.
In an interview with Liberty in 2013, Yu-Ting, a two-time world champion, was just 17 years old when she made the shocking revelation.
Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, along with Imane Khelif, was disqualified from last year’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi
Her coach Zeng Ziqiang said Yu-Ting learned boxing because she felt sorry for her mother who was repeatedly beaten by her father. Pictured: Yu-Ting and her mother
The boxer, who like Algeria’s Imane Khelif is embroiled in a gender dispute at the Olympics, will fight Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova this afternoon in the 57kg fatweight class.
Lin will enter the boxing competition as the Asian Games champion and highest-ranked fighter
The boxer, who like Algeria’s Imane Khelif is embroiled in a gender dispute at the Olympics, will fight Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova this afternoon in the 57kg class.
In the Liberty Times interview discovered by MailOnline, she said: ‘I’m learning to box to protect my mother.’
She spoke out after winning the gold medal at the Women’s World Youth Boxing Championship, but she was born into a family where domestic violence was prevalent.
Her coach Zeng Ziqiang said Yu-Ting learned boxing because she felt sorry for her mother, who was repeatedly beaten by her father.
After her success, she was awarded a scholarship of 40,000 Taiwanese dollars and gave the prize money she would later win to her mother so she could support her family after her father abandoned them in their home in New Taipei City.
She also shared how she was inspired to take up boxing after watching cartoons, her favorite being The First Divine Fist, a popular animated series in Taiwan.
It tells the story of a boy who is bullied at school and then meets a famous fighter, Mamoru Takamura, who teaches him boxing and later becomes a champion.
Yu-Ting said that watching the manga cartoon “got her interested in boxing,” although she initially faced resistance from her mother, who feared it would interfere with her studies.
After competing at the Asian Boxing Championships and winning gold in 2017 and 2019, she first competed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she lost in the round of 16.
She is also a two-time world champion, but was disqualified from the women’s competition in New Delhi last year after she did not meet the International Boxing Federation’s gender criteria.
Her hero is the legendary Ukrainian boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko, two-time Olympic champion.
Lin Yu-ting (pictured), who like Khelif was disqualified from the Women’s World Championship last year, will enter the ring in the featherweight division on Friday
Her hero is the legendary Ukrainian boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko, the two-time Olympic champion and a three-time world champion
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On Friday, Taiwan’s presidential office and the former president expressed their support for her.
Tsai Ing-Wen, the country’s first female president, who served for eight years between 2016 and 2024, said: “Let us cheer together for Lin Yu-Ting,” adding that a victory would be an honour for Taiwan.
She added that Yu-Ting “is not afraid of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring.”
Meanwhile, Pan Men-an, the secretary-general of Taiwan’s presidential office, wrote on Facebook that it was wrong that she had “been subjected to humiliation, insults and verbal harassment in the past, just because of her appearance and a controversial verdict.”