A controversy over the name of the Taiwanese Olympic team notwithstanding, the athletes representing Taiwan at the Beijing Olympics are aiming to give the nation’s sports fans something to look forward to in the next two weeks.
The Beijing Olympics has a list of 34 official sports. Taiwan is qualified to compete in 15 of them — athletics, swimming, rowing, badminton, baseball, weightlifting, softball, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, judo, sailing and cycling.
The nation’s baseball team will be the focus of the attention, especially as the team earned their qualification through two hard-fought qualifying games.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-FANG, TAIPEI TIMES
As baseball will not be listed as one of the official sports at the London Olympics in 2012, this is also the last time that Taiwan can compete for gold in this category.
Taiwan’s baseball team’s best performance came at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, when they won the silver medal after losing the final to Cuba.
Aside from the players from the Chinese Professional Baseball League, such as La New Bears slugger Chen Chin-feng, the team also includes some of the Taiwanese players who are now playing in professional leagues overseas.
They include Luo Kuo-huei of the Seattle Mariners, Lin Chen-hsuen and Chiang Chih-hsien of the Boston Red Sox and Chen Wei-yin of Japan’s Chunichi Dragons. Former Kansas City Royals pitcher Tsao Chin-hui was also drafted.
Among the 24 baseball players on the list, manager Hung Yi-chung has 10 pitchers, two of them left-handers.
Hung has said the team’s goal is to get into the final four. Taiwan are scheduled to play their first game against the Netherlands on Wednesday.
In addition to baseball, the nation’s squad stands a very good chance of garnering medals in several sports categories.
In taekwondo, Chu Mu-yen, who was a gold medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s under-58kg class, represents Taiwan in the same category this year. His girlfriend, Yang Shu-chun, will also compete in the women’s under-49kg class this year.
Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling said that Chu had a 70 percent chance of claiming another gold, or what she termed “0.7 gold.”
The nation has also sent six archers to this year’s Games. Among them, Chen Szu-yuan and Wang Cheng-pang won the silver medal in the men’s team category at the last Olympics. Yuan Shu-chi and Wu Hui-ju also won silver in the women’s team category in 2004.
Tennis players Chan Yung-jan and Lu Yen-hsun will participate in the women’s singles and men’s singles categories. Chan will then team up with Chuang Chia-jung to compete in the women’s doubles category.
The nation’s softball team secured their qualification for the Games after winning the championship in a qualifying competition last year. Consisting of 15 female players, the team is scheduled to play their first game against Canada on Tuesday. Softball player Lai Sheng-jung was also chosen as the nation’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony yesterday.
Like baseball, softball will be removed from the Olympics in 2012.
In total, the nation won two golds, two silvers and a bronze in 2004, and ranked 31st.
“We can only hope that we can do a little better than we did four years ago,” Sports Affairs Council deputy minister Chen Hsien-chung told the Taipei Times.
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