Advocates for swimmers with disabilities yesterday pleaded with the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) to reinstate a number of races it had canceled ahead of this year's national games for people with disabilities, scheduled to be held in Hualien in June.
The national games for disabled athletes are held every two years.
Last year, the council decided to follow the regulations set by the International Paralympic Committee and cancel some of the swimming categories that are not official programs in the Special Olympics World Games. They include the level 6 (S6) to 10 (S10) in the 50m backstroke, breast stroke and butterfly categories.
Instead, the council kept the Level 1 (S1) to Level 5 (S5) in all three categories.
Swimmers competing from Level 1 to Level 5 in general only have 10 to 50 percent of their bodies that remain functional, whereas those competing in Level 6 to Level 10 have minor to medium physical or mental disabilities. The latter category usually attracts more participants than the former.
Huang Wen-sheng (
"The council keeps stressing that the measure was taken so that the quality of our national games could be in sync with that of international games." he said. "Then why didn't they do the same thing with the games held before 2006?"
Huang also questioned the qualifications of members serving on the preparatory board for the games.
"I wonder how many of them [the board members] have actually trained any swimmer having the capacity to compete in the international games," he said.
Parents of the disabled swimmers also attended a press conference yesterday. They said it took them a long time to train and encourage their children to come forward and join the game. What the council had done was actually depriving their children of an opportunity to demonstrate their gifts and build up their self-esteem, they added.
Chou Kuo-chin (周國金), chief of the SAC's physical fitness and sports section, said the national games for people with disabilities is considered an extremely important event by the council, from which it could select athletes to represent Taiwan in the Special Olympics.
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
RSS