Taiwan wasn’t among the winners at the Beijing Games, while historical rival China is basking in a golden glow after hosting the event and topping the medal table.
There were few positives to be drawn from this Olympiad in terms of sporting success, while a diplomatic spat over the country’s name before the Games began signaled there would be difficulties ahead.
When Taiwan’s Olympic delegation arrived at the Athlete’s Village, for instance, China’s media emphasized at every opportunity how its members felt “at home,” in an effort to score political points.
This occasionally uncomfortable situation was compounded when Chinese fans supported Taiwan’s athletes by shouting “Go China!”
Even so, a kind of Olympic truce prevailed and the chef de mission of the Taiwan delegation, Tsai Szu-chueh, said the organization of the Games was impressive, if not flawless.
“China has made great efforts over the past seven years. Its hardware development, such as sports venues, will leave a great legacy in the sports industry,” Tsai said. “But on the software front, China should have utilized the International Olympic Committee’s great talent pool and hired more international experts from the cities that hosted Olympics before. After all, it takes experience accumulated from the past to put on a great show.”
On the sporting front, Taiwan’s Games was symbolized by the failure of its vaunted baseball team, that claimed just one win and fell to relative novice China.
In the taekwondo competition, former Olympic champion Chu Mu-yen seemed fazed by the weight of a nation’s expectations and only managed bronze.
His girlfriend and Asian champion Yang Shu-chun, meanwhile, lost to Chinese rival Wu Jingyu, who went on to seal a gold medal victory.
Taekwondo head coach Hou Wei-hsing said pressure rather than a lack of ability or preparation had confounded his athletes.
“They did their best and had the confidence and ambition to win. Of course, Taiwan’s people had high hopes of them, but in the end they couldn’t achieve what they aimed for. We’ll review how we can make progress,” Hou said.
Before the Games, Tsai predicted Taiwan would exceed its Athens haul of two gold medals, a pair of silvers and a bronze, to come 31st in the standings.
Instead, the country slipped to 80th in the rankings, with four bronze medals.
“Of course the result falls short of our expectations … our hopes were dashed. Certainly we feel disappointed, but the important thing is that we note other nations have made greater progress than us,” Tsai said. “Our athletes worked hard, but competing players worked even harder and their basic training was very solid.”
Tsai echoed Hou’s words when he said training systems would be reviewed and there would be improvements for London 2012.
Many countries will be looking at China’s example when it comes to reforming training programs, said Jeff Ruffolo, a senior advisor to the Beijing organizers who has overseen four Olympics.
“The level of competition was so much higher than before and this was seen in the number of records that were broken,” Ruffolo said. “China not only exceeded at what it has traditionally done well, but also sports like archery where it has not done so well. Maybe others will emulate this.”
“John Hancock” is the Taipei Times’ correspondent for the Beijing Olympics.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS