President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) extended his congratulations to weightlifter Chen Wei-ling (陳葦綾) yesterday for winning a bronze medal in the women’s 48kg class category at the Beijing Olympic Games yesterday morning.
Chen is the first athlete from the Taiwanese team to pick up a medal.
“[Chen’s] bronze medal is worth great praise. We expect her to continue achieving greatness for the country,” Ma said in a written statement.
PHOTO: CNA
Chen’s combined lift of 196kg marked a significant improvement over her 11th place finish in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she finished the 48kg women’s competition with a 170kg result.
Executive Yuan Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said yesterday that to congratulate Chen, the government had asked Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tseng (曾志朗), who leads a delegation of Taiwanese officials in Beijing, to present Chen with a red envelope.
Tseng, along with Sports Affairs Council Chairwoman Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城), attended the Games in their capacity as Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee advisers.
Later yesterday, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) showed their support for the national baseball team ahead of their trip to the Beijing Olympics by joining thousands of baseball fans at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium to watch the Taiwanese baseball team’s game against the Sinon Bulls.
The national baseball team heads for Beijing today and Ma said he expected it would win a gold medal.
Taiwan’s baseball team won a silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Taiwan’s 80-strong Olympic delegation will compete in 15 sports — archery, baseball, cycling, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, badminton, tennis, track and field and weightlifting.
The nation won two gold medals — both in taekwondo — two silvers and one bronze at the Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens, ranking 31st in the overall medal standings that year.
Meanwhile, Shih dismissed a report in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that said Tseng, Tai and Cheng had been given National Olympic Committee (NOC) cards granting limited access at Olympic-related venues that differed from the NOC cards given to dignitaries from other countries.
“The report is not true as our officials are allowed to go anywhere with their NOC cards,” she said. “The treatment we received was the same as four years ago. There is no problem with that.”
Tseng could not be reached for a comment.
Chen Wei-ling paid tribute to her trash-talking Chinese coach yesterday after she came from nowhere to bag the bronze medal in the 48kg class.
The world No. 11 saw her fortunes dramatically change for the better after ditching her self-help routine and hiring Chinese coach Zhang Jiamin.
“At the very beginning my coach told me that my style was probably the worst among the world’s lifters,” she told reporters.
“I am a woman of strength, but so poor in technique,” she said, praising her coach’s colorful language for helping “guide me in the proper technique.”
The results have been nothing short of spectacular, particularly in her problem area of the clean and jerk, where the barbell is first hoisted from the floor on to the shoulder blades and underneath the chin before the lifter jerks it above her head with both arms extended.
“As for the clean and jerk I have improved so much over the last few years from 70 to 80 kilos,” she said. “However, I was a little bit stressed and nervous and that’s why I did not perform better.”
To her credit, her best effort, at 112kg, was the best behind gold medalist Chen Xiexia of China.
The Taiwanese made a late run for the silver medal, but failed in her last heave of 115kg.
Chen said her only thought was to accomplish what her coach had asked her to do, and she thought that “even if I break an arm I will not let go of the barbell.”
When she failed the lift, she only felt anger inside.
“I have done my best and I’m sure in the next four years with more intensive training I think I will improve my performance in the clean and jerk,” Chen said. “As for the snatch I’m very confident because I’m a young woman of great strength and I am sure I can do it well,” she said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Chen Wei-ling
• Date of birth: Jan. 4, 1982
• Height: 149cm
• Weight: 48kg
Previous results
• 2003 World Championships: 15th
• 2003 Asian Championships: 4th
• 2004 Athens Olympic Games: 11th
• 2005 World Games: 3rd
• 2007 World Championships: 11th
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
RSS