By James Pomfret
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's presidential office and former president on Friday expressed support for Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting who has been embroiled in a row over gender at the Paris Olympic Games ahead of her opening bout.
"Let's cheer for Lin Yu-ting together," wrote Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first female president, who ran the island between 2016 and 2024, on her official Facebook page, adding that Lin was seeking victory for herself and honour for Taiwan.
Lin, 28, is one of two boxers, who were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from last year's World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests but were given the green light to compete in the Paris Olympics.
The other boxer, Algeria's Imane Khelif, defeated Italy's Angela Carini in a women's welterweight bout on Thursday, landing a series of heavy blows that prompted Carini to withdraw after 46 seconds.
The seeming mismatch and images of Carini sobbing in the ring afterwards, has fuelled a debate over gender and whether athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) should compete in women's sport.
British author J.K. Rowling, who has been outspoken on gender issues in the past, tweeted after the bout that the Paris Olympics had been "forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), said it was saddened by the row, and that the pair were facing "aggression" because of an arbitrary decision.
It stressed all athletes competing in boxing met eligibility requirements, and that the IBA decision to disqualify the two boxers last year was a sudden and arbitrary decision, taken "without any due process."
Lin is a double world champion competing in her second Olympics, and will fight in the 57kg women's event against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova on Friday. Lin reportedly first started boxing after seeing her mother suffer domestic abuse.
Pan Men-an, the Secretary-General for Taiwan's Presidential office, said on Facebook he supported Lin and that it was wrong for her to be "subjected to humiliation, insults and verbal bullying just because of your appearance and a controversial verdict in the past."
Tsai, the former president, also said on X that Lin was "fearless in the face of challenges, whether they come from inside or outside the ring."
(Reporting by James Pomfret in Taipei; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
