Taiwan’s men defeated China and South Korea in the 3x3 basketball at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, to reach the final, where they beat Qatar with a turn-around victory, unexpectedly taking home the gold and surprising the basketball world.
I watched the entire tournament. In the final, Taiwan fell behind and drew level at the last minute. After Qatar were fouled in the final seconds, Taiwan made the free throw and won, demonstrating the team’s true grit.
The gold medal was unexpected because basketball is a mainstream, highly competitive sport. Taiwan’s previous performances at international basketball events have shown how difficult it is to perform at the top level.
The coaches said that the players, who are at least 190cm tall, are able to shoot from beyond the arc, are hard-working, and demonstrate acute defense awareness and adaptability.
As the underdogs in the final, the team held their own and turned the game around at the end.
Besides demonstrating Taiwan’s fearlessness and “never give up” attitude, the players making possible the impossible conveyed Taiwan’s values, and brought incomparable pride and confidence.
Apart from the men’s basketball team, judoka Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) and go player Hsu Hao-hung (許皓鋐) have beaten high-ranking opposition at their national sports.
If sports performances are indicative of Taiwan’s power and image, then the performances in Hangzhou have been a great success.
Tao Yi-che is an adjunct assistant professor of English as a medium of instruction at National Taipei University of Business and is in charge of implementing bilingual instruction at the Affiliated High School of National Chengchi University.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
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