Javelin thrower Liu Ya-ting and table tennis player Chen Po-yen on Wednesday carried the flag for Taiwan at the opening ceremony of the Paris Paralympics.
They were joined at the ceremony by 10 other Taiwanese athletes, including 48-year-old table tennis veteran Cheng Ming-chih, who is making his third appearance at the Paralympics after Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
Liu, competing in the women’s javelin, told reporters that she was excited about participating in the opening ceremony as a flagbearer with 17-year-old paddler Chen, the youngest athlete on the team.
Photo: AFP / OIS/ IOC
Taiwan sent 13 athletes to Paris in seven disciplines — badminton, judo, table tennis, powerlifting, athletics, archery and taekwondo.
The athletes took the stage at Place de la Concorde after Syria.
More than 5,000 athletes from 168 countries participated in the opening event, which had about 50,000 spectators.
Photo courtesy of the Sports Administration
During its live broadcast, the host of the French public national television channel France 2 described the flag carried by Taiwan’s athletes as being of “Chinese Taipei, but it is Taiwan.”
President William Lai yesterday voiced his support for the nation’s athletes in Paris, writing on Facebook: “Taiwan is proud of you all.”
People should cheer for the Taiwanese Paralympic heroes, he wrote, adding that he has faith the athletes would give their all.
Photo: Reuters
On the first day of competition yesterday, Hu Guang-chiou and Yang I-chen lost their opening badminton match in Group B of the women’s doubles WH1-WH2, beaten 21-10, 21-19 by Switzerland’s Cynthia Sui Mathez and Ilaria Renggli at La Chapelle Arena.
In Group B of the men’s singles SU5, Fang Jen-yu lost 21-14, 21-18 against Malaysia’s Muhammad Fareez Mas Anuar.
Cai Yi-lin was to play China’s Lin Shuangbao in Group A of the women’s singles SH6 after press time last night.
In taekwondo, Taiwan’s Xiao Xiang-wen beat Ebrahim Danishi of Afghanistan 37-7 in their men’s K44 under-58kg round-of-16 bout at the Grand Palais.
In the quarter-finals, Xiao defeated Bopha Kong of France 22-1 to earn a spot in the semi-finals against Asaf Yasur of Israel after press time last night.
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