TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday (Aug. 9) hit back at claims by deputy Russian UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy about Taiwanese Olympic boxer Lin Yu-ting's (林郁婷) gender.

On Wednesday (Aug. 7), Russia and Algeria traded punches at a UN Security Council meeting over the Olympic boxing gender controversies. MOFA condemned Polyanski's referral to “false statements from the International Boxing Association (IBA).”

The ministry reiterated that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has repeatedly confirmed Lin's eligibility to compete. It pointed out that the IOC revoked the IBA's right to organize Olympic boxing events as early as 2019, and later stripped the IBA of its status as the governing body for boxing in 2023, rendering the organization devoid of international credibility.

MOFA said Polyanskiy had “arbitrarily cited false accusations from the International Boxing Association without verifying the facts, and misused the Security Council venue to purport fallacies irrelevant to maintaining international peace and security.” The ministry said this fully highlights Russia's “disregard for international rules and justice, its intention to use political power to influence the Olympic games, and its inherently arrogant nature." 

The ministry called on the international community to unite in condemnation and jointly uphold the Olympic spirit of "friendship, unity, and fair competition".

Referring to Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Security Council meeting, Polyanskiy claimed that at the Paris Olympics, “female boxers are being publicly subjected to violence on the part of athletes who had previously failed hormonal tests done by the International Boxing Federation and, according to the Federation and according to common sense, are men," reported Reuters. 

Polyanskiy described this as a “repellent sight” and accused the West of imposing an “LGBT agenda” on the world. Senior Algerian diplomat Toufik Koudri countered Polyanskiy's comments by saying “The courageous boxer Miss Imane Khelif was born a female. She has lived through her childhood and upbringing and adolescent years as a woman. She practiced sports as a full-fledged woman.”

The IBA disqualified Lin and Khelif from the 2023 Boxing World Championships after they allegedly failed gender tests. The IBA has yet to provide detailed information on the sex chromosome tests or allow outside independent analysis.