Weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨) on Sunday won Taiwan’s first gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, lifting a total of 212kg in the women’s 53kg group.
Hsu lifted 100kg in the snatch and 112kg in the clean and jerk.
The 25-year-old student beat the Philippine’s Hidilyn Diaz, who won silver, South Korea’s Yoon Jin-hee, who won bronze, and China’s Li Yajun (黎雅君).
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Hsu could gain another Olympic gold, as she is expected to be promoted from second place in the 2012 London Olympics after the gold medalist — Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan — tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs just before the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Under amended regulations governing the issuance of Guo Guang Athletic Medals and Scholarships (國光體育獎章及獎助學金頒發辦法) and additional prize money offered by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee for gold medalists in the Rio Games, Hsu is to be awarded NT$30 million (US$952,018).
The Ministry of Education last year approved amendments raising the prize money for winners of gold medals in the Olympic Games to NT$20 million, with NT$7 million and NT$5 million for silver and bronze medal winners respectively.
Photo: EPA
The committee is to award Hu an additional NT$10 million.
After receiving the medal, Hsu said that her performance was better than she had expected, adding that she was worried about a thigh injury she sustained three weeks ago.
Hsu, who is from a rural area of Lunbei Township (崙背) in Yunlin County, said she plans to donate a portion of her prize money to her alma mater, Kaohsiung Municipal Wunshan Senior High School.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
In Taipei yesterday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) sent congratulatory messages to Hsu.
Tsai thanked Taiwanese athletes at the Rio Games for giving their best, saying Taiwanese are proud of them, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said.
Hsu’s father, Hsu Yung-ming (許永明), said he was overjoyed by the news.
Photo: AP
Also on Sunday, archers Tan Ya-ting (譚雅婷), Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩) and Lin Shih-chia (林詩嘉) beat their Italian opponents to take the women’s team bronze medal.
It was Taiwan’s first Olympic archery medal since the men’s team won a silver medal and the women’s team the bronze in the Athens Games in 2004. Tan and Lei are to each receive NT$5 million in prize money.
The Athens Games also saw two of Taiwan’s taekwondo athletes win the nation’s first-ever gold medals: Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) in the women’s under-49kg division and Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) in men’s under-58kg division.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
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
RSS