In Paris on Friday, Taiwanese featherweight boxer Lin Yu-ting steps into the ring for her first bout of the Olympics, having faced renewed scrutiny of her gender eligibility before her matche even began.
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00:00Taiwanese boxer Lin Yuting has been a contender in women's boxing for years.
00:05Now 28, the national team athlete has devoted all her time and attention to her Olympic dream.
00:11She'll get her shot on Friday when she steps into the ring in Paris
00:15with Sitora Tordjabikova of Uzbekistan in the women's featherweight round of 16.
00:21I want to win the Olympic Games in Paris.
00:24I want to win the Olympic gold medal for Taiwan.
00:32If she does, it'll be a first for Taiwan in the sport
00:36and a high point in Lin's 15-year boxing career,
00:39which has seen her touch gloves over 60 times.
00:42It'll also be a major achievement for her coach.
00:45We've been working together for 15 years.
00:57Coach Zeng has watched Lin grow into the featherweight contender she is today.
01:02He's been there through the grueling daily grind of elite-level boxing training
01:06and knows what motivates her to keep running, keep sparring, and keep her hands up.
01:12That included a trip to China and visiting the venues of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
01:24Coach Zeng told me about the venue.
01:29He said, imagine being in a venue with tens of thousands of people
01:38watching you fight.
01:44That inspirational challenge worked.
01:47Lin has since fought best in the world, including at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
01:52and at the 2022 Women's Boxing Championships in Istanbul.
01:57It was winning gold at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China
02:01that presented her with the chance to fight in the Paris Olympics.
02:06Yet earlier that same year, she faced the biggest setback of her career
02:10when she was stripped of a World Boxing Championships bronze
02:13for failing a gender eligibility test.
02:17Despite not having competed in the female category for years
02:21and being cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee twice,
02:24questions about her gender have followed her ever since.
02:28But elite boxers like Lin Yuting are nothing if not persistent.
02:32It's her commitment to the sport and willingness to make sacrifices
02:35that's kept her on her path.
02:37If I were to be reborn again, I would still choose boxing.
02:44Boxing is a tough sport to train for,
02:53but the results and fruits of it are sweet.
02:58While Lin Yuting prepares for her first bout in Paris,
03:02the fight to prove herself has extended outside of the ring.
03:05For that reason, nothing will prove sweeter than the taste of Olympic glory.
03:10Ryan Wu, Sandy Qi, Bryn Thomas, and Jeremy Olivier for Taiwan Plus.