Taiwan has a good chance of winning medals in breakdancing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris if the government can quickly find effective ways to integrate the nation’s many breaking clubs, Breaking Association chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) said yesterday.
Lien made the remarks at a news conference organized by the National Policy Foundation — a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank — after Taiwanese athletes garnered two golds, four silvers and six bronzes at the Tokyo Games, which ended on Sunday.
Lien, a former Taipei mayoral candidate, also serves as the foundation’s vice chairman.
Photo: Chong Hung-liang, Taipei Times
The 12 medals in Tokyo were the most that Taiwanese athletes had brought home since winning two golds, two silvers and one bronze at the 2004 Athens Games.
Most of Taiwan’s Olympic medalists are expected to compete again in 2024, but the French Olympic Organizing Committee’s plan to reduce the number of weightlifters and boxers in the competition might affect the nation’s chances of winning medals.
However, Paris is to offer a new medal-winning opportunity: breakdancing.
“Taiwan’s breakdancers nearly made it to the semi-finals of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, which was an extraordinary achievement. Unfortunately, government officials did not quite get the sport at the time, and some thought it was just another type of folk dance,” Lien said.
Many high schools and universities in Taiwan have student clubs for breakdancing or street dancing, making it a popular student activity, he said.
In the past, people might have considered breakdancing as nothing more than a youth activity, but some might want to gain from it now that it has become an official Olympic sport, he said.
Aside from the Breaking Association, Taiwan has many breakdancing clubs, which the government should quickly find effective ways to integrate, he said.
For the 2024 Paris Games, the government should have a well-established mechanism for selecting and training breakdancers, and providing them with sufficient resources, Lien said, adding that it is also important to train judges for breaking competitions.
Former Sports Administration director-general Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡), Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee executive director Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) and retired ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin (林義傑) also attended the briefing.
Tai Hsia-ling has been criticized for allegedly pressuring Taiwanese badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) to participate in the Paris Games by launching a petition on Facebook, even though the badminton star had indicated she might retire after Tokyo.
“The petition I launched online was for people to click ‘Like’ if they agreed that Tai [Tzu-ying] should continue to compete, but I won’t gather signatures for the petition and will fully respect her decision,” Tai Hsia-ling said.
To raise funding for athletes, the government needs to amend the Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例) so that more sports-related items can be funded by revenue generated through sports lotteries, Tai Hsia-ling said, adding that companies should be allowed to list sports-related sponsorships as tax deductions.
Athletes, coaches and training partners are important assets in Taiwan and should not be treated as part-time workers, Lin said.
“Simply raising government-funded bonuses for Olympic medalists is not enough,” Lin said. “Laws should guarantee the allowance and subsidies granted to athletes, coaches and training partners.”
“With the increase in funding and personnel, the government should support underfunded but popular sports that have the potential of becoming Olympic sports,” said Huang, who won a bronze in taekwondo at the 2000 Sydney Games.
The government should also assist retired athletes in living a financially secure life, Huang added.
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