The national Olympic team yesterday departed for Japan to compete in the Tokyo Games starting on Friday.
The 134-strong Olympic delegation includes officials, support staff and 68 athletes, who are to compete in 18 sports through Aug. 8.
Taiwan is competing in the Games under the name Chinese Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The delegation is led by Taiwan’s top female weightlifter, Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who is to carry the team flag at the opening ceremony. It also includes world No. 1 women’s singles badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), as well as athletes who are to compete in cycling, taekwondo, judo, shooting, canoeing, rowing and archery events.
Taiwan is also to compete in swimming, artistic gymnastics, table tennis, boxing and tennis, among other events.
Team members wore the red, white and blue uniform of the national squad and matching masks as they boarded their chartered flight. They traveled in one group to avoid coming into contact with others, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) and other government officials were at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to give the team an official send-off.
The government had urged Taiwanese not to visit the airport to send off the team due to the pandemic. The team’s departure was livestreamed online.
A smaller group of Taiwanese athletes and support staff arrived in Tokyo last week and several similar small groups are scheduled to depart Taiwan for Japan in the following days.
Disease prevention coordinators are among the support staff for the first time, due to the pandemic.
The Sports Administration is targeting medals in weightlifting, badminton, artistic gymnastics, boxing, archery, javelin and karate.
Taiwan won one gold and two bronze medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Yesterday, controversy erupted after Tai posted an Instagram story of herself sitting in economy class during the flight to Tokyo.
Pan had last year said that the nation’s Olympic team would travel in business class.
Su on Facebook last night said that he called Tai to apologize and instructed the Sports Administration to convey the government’s apologies to the rest of the team.
“The heroes of the Olympics are the athletes, not the accompanying officials,” Su said, after reports emerged that coaches and medics traveled in business class.
Su said that after the Olympics, he would instruct the Ministry of Education to report on the matter and hold those responsible to account.
The Sports Administration last night said that the athletes were seated in economy because of their number and the need to space them apart due to COVID-19 concerns.
On the return flight, it pledged to prioritize athletes for business-class seating.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
The Han Kuang exercises, the nation’s major war games, are to start today and run for five days. The drills are to include a military aircraft emergency takeoff and landing exercise on a regular roadway on Wednesday, featuring all three fighter jet models in Taiwan’s fleet, a military source said last week. The drill is to begin at 6:30am on a 3km section of Provincial Highway No. 1 in Pingtung County’s Jiadong Township (佳冬), and feature an Indigenous Defense Fighter, an F-16V, a Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K Hawkeye early warning aircraft, the source said. The emergency landing and takeoff drill aims to
MRNA VACCINE: Heart inflammation is rare, but possible after a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, and students need to be aware of possible side effects, an expert said As Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations for students aged 12 to 17 are to begin on campuses on Thursday next week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday urged recipients to be especially watchful for five signs of possible myocarditis or pericarditis, which are rare adverse reactions to some COVID-19 vaccines. The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) joined the CECC’s daily news briefing to report on possible side effects after receiving a BioNTech vaccine. Lee said that cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been observed in people in the US who have received mRNA COVID-19
Taiwan on Friday accused China of seeking to use the Honduran election to “create controversy” and undermine Taiwan’s long-standing ties with the country, saying it would strive to win support for Honduras’ relations with Taipei. Honduras’ main left-wing opposition party, the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), led by ousted former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, has said that if it wins November’s presidential election it would seek to “readjust” the country’s debt and establish diplomatic relations with China. Honduras is one of 15 UN member countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has already warned Honduras not
TESTING THE WATERS: Making the considerations public a day after a Biden-Xi phone call indicates that the US is testing China’s reaction, a think tank head said A Financial Times report that the US is considering allowing Taiwan to change the name of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington to feature the name “Taiwan” highlighted Washington’s “two-pronged” approach to China, a researcher said yesterday. The report on Friday said that Washington might allow the nation to change the office’s name to “Taiwan Representative Office.” The report came after US President Joe Biden on Thursday spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) by telephone for the first time since February. A White House readout of the call said that “the two leaders discussed the responsibility of both
RSS