Taiwanese Olympic gold medalist Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) was disqualified from membership in the International Olympics Committee’s (IOC) Athletes’ Commission for allegedly violating campaign regulations in London.
Chu, who won a gold medal in taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, was nominated by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Association to run for membership in the Athletes’ Commission.
The IOC was originally scheduled to announce the election results for new commission members on Thursday, but did not deliver the results until 5pm on Saturday.
Photo: CNA
In its e-mail to Chu, the IOC said the Taiwanese athlete had been reminded that he was not allowed to distribute or display any material related to his candidacy.
“Unfortunately, despite the alerts, we have heard that you may have continued to violate the rules by handing out lollipops to promote your candidature,” the IOC said in the letter.
“The two [Chu and Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi] breached the rules, which are very clear rules about campaigning [for election to the Athletes’ Commission],” IOC communications director Mark Adams said in a TV news interview. “And the athletes that were running the commission decided that they were excluded from the result.”
In response, Chu admitted using an iPad to access the IOC Web site to explain the committee’s workings to another athlete during his campaign, but denied that he distributed lollipops to other athletes.
“We did not give out any lollipops,” Chu said. “I did tell them that I used an iPad to show athletes how to vote in the election. However, I stopped doing it after the warning from the IOC came on July 26.”
Chu said that he had not taken any lollipops to London, nor had he seen one after he arrived there.
He said that he had no idea why he was accused of using lollipops in his campaign, adding that he denied doing so in his explanation to the IOC.
“If they had told me on July 26 that I was disqualified, that would have been better,” Chu said. “But they declared my disqualification after the election results were announced. I was really disappointed.”
Chinese Taipei Olympic Association secretary-general Chen Kuo-yi (陳國儀) said the association had requested the IOC to clearly state the main reasons for the disqualification and provide evidence to prove it.
Murofushi, who won an Olympic bronze medal in men’s hammer throw on Aug. 6, was disqualified for allegedly explaining the voting procedures in the cafeteria used by athletes, which is one of the prohibited areas to lobby for votes.
Twenty-one candidates were in the running for four seats on the Athletes’ Commission this year. The four athletes elected were from Slovakia, Australia, Zimbabwe and France.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat