All 12,000 tickets for the Aug. 19 Summer Universiade opening ceremony were sold out by Friday, said Lee Chang-hui (李昌輝), an official responsible for the event’s promotion.
In comparison, only 17 percent of tickets have been sold for the Aug. 30 closing ceremony, but the Taipei City Government expects ticket sales to increase after it launches a promotional campaign in the second half of this month, he said.
The opening ceremony will be held at the Taipei Stadium, with performances by Taiwanese dancer PeiJu Chien-Pott (簡珮如), who was formerly with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Cirque du Soleil dancer Billy Chang (張逸軍) and singer Wang Lee-hom (王力宏).
The closing ceremony at the stadium is to be a rock ’n’ roll concert, with performances by LaLa Hsu, also known as Hsu Chia-ying (徐佳瑩), and Aboriginal singer Jia Jia (家家).
Ticket prices for the closing ceremony range from NT$500 to NT$2,000, while ticket prices for individual events range from NT$200 to NT$300.
People can also buy package tickets to attend multiple competitions in the same sport on different days for NT$500 to NT$1,600.
The Taipei City Police Department, which is in charge of security for the Universiade, has said it would deploy about 5,000 police at the Athletes’ Village and sports venues.
The Taiwanese team is to have 368 athletes, the nation’s biggest Universiade team ever, the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration said.
The agency said Taiwanese athletes are to compete in 22 different sports and aim to win more than seven gold medals.
Athletes representing the nation include students from 49 educational institutions at home and abroad, it said.
They include weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨), a two-time Olympic gold medalist; weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who won a bronze medal in the women’s 58kg division at last year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro; archers Tan Ya-ting (譚雅婷) and Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩), who won bronze at last year’s Olympics; tennis players Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴), who are seeded in the top 10 in the world women’s doubles; world No. 1 women’s badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎); table tennis players Chen Chien-an (陳建安) and Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜); and taekwondo players Chuang Chia-chia (莊佳佳), Liu Wei-ting (劉威廷) and Huang Yu-jen (黃鈺仁), the agency said.
Overseas-based athletes representing Taiwan include basketball player Ray Chen (陳盈駿), and golfers Yu Chun-an (俞俊安) and Chen Chih-min (陳之敏), it said.
Other athletes include players from the Chinese Professional Baseball League and those set to join the league, it added.
The Universiade team is to have 105 coaches, including 20 from overseas to help track-and-field athletes, the agency said.
The last Universiade was held in South Korea’s Gwangju in 2015.
Taiwan sent 236 athletes to that event and won six gold, 12 silver and 19 bronze medals, the agency said.
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