The Chinese Taipei Skating Union (CTSU) yesterday said that it was under “invisible international pressure” when it suggested to the International Skating Union (ISU) in May that the latter could change the venue of the Asian Open Figure Skating Classic, but added that it did not tell the ISU that it would forfeit the right to host the competition.
The revelation came after the ISU on Wednesday issued a statement saying that it received at the end of May indications from several Asian members, including the CTSU, that “it would be preferable to host this event in another Asian nation.”
“The ISU invited the interested Asian members to consult with each other and agree upon the most suitable host city. As a result and with the specific agreement of the Chinese Taipei Skating Union, it was finally decided that this Challenger Series event would be hosted by the Hong Kong Skating Union [HKSU] and be held in Dongguan City, China, on Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, 2019,” the ISU said in the statement.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The ISU statement contradicted what the CTSU said on Tuesday, when it claimed to have been informed about the ISU council’s decision without any prior knowledge.
The Sports Administration on Wednesday vowed to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee to help the CTSU appeal what it saw as a unilateral and unjust ruling by the ISU.
CTSU secretary-general Eddy Wu (吳奕德) yesterday told a news conference that both the CTSU and the HKSU submitted applications to host the event in February.
On March 27, the ISU listed Taipei as one of the venues to host one of its Challenger Series events this year, he said, adding that the CTSU then began preparing for it.
The ISU on May 20 announced that Taipei would be hosting the Asian Open Figure Skating Classic.
“However, we have heard that HKSU continued to actively pursue the right to host the competition and gained the support of some ISU members. Due to invisible international pressure, some ISU members that are friendly toward us have told us certain ISU members conspired to boycott the event in Taipei. This could cause us to be unable to meet the requirement for minimum number of participating nations and consequently skaters’ performances in the competition would not be recognized by the ISU,” Wu said.
“As such, we told the ISU that while we still hope that it continues to support us hosting the competition, but we also said that maybe changing the venue could be a possible option.’ Perhaps the ISU interpreted that statement as meaning we wanted to give up the right to host the event,” he added.
The CTSU did not get a response from the ISU until June 25, when the latter wrote a letter to ask for its permission to hand the right to host the competition to the HKSU, he said.
“We understood that the situation was not in our favor from our conversations with our allies. To preserve our good relations with the ISU and future opportunities to host competitions, we replied on June 28 that we agreed to the arrangement, but said we were waiting for a final decision from the ISU council,” he said. “We want to make it clear that we never thought about not hosting the event until we saw the ISU announcement on Monday.”
Sports Administration International and Cross-strait Division Director Hsu Hsiu-ling (許秀玲) said that the Ministry of Education yesterday formed an ad hoc team to investigate why the CTSU told different stories over the past three days.
The Sports Administration is also to convene a meeting today of foreign ministry officials, legal experts and representatives from the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and the CTSU to clarify details about the case.
The information gathered at the meeting would be used in the investigation, Hsu said, adding that any punishment would be determined after the investigation is concluded.
Hsu said that the administration met with the CTSU on Wednesday and yesterday morning, during which time it made no mention of the “invisible international pressure” that it experienced from other ISU members.
“They told us they did not hear anything from the ISU from the end of May until this month and that they were shocked. Imagine our shock when we read the statement from the ISU,” she said.
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