This summer, Kaohsiung hosted the 2009 World Games, while Taipei hosted the 21st Summer Deaflympics. This energized the two cities and gave the public a chance to watch Taiwan’s athletes compete with athletes from abroad. The nation’s teams performed very well.
Now that the Deaflympics have come to a close, Taiwan should start thinking about how to establish a nationwide sporting culture.
Kaohsiung has a new sports venue, the Kaohsiung Arena, and Taipei opened its eighth municipal sports center not long ago. Sporting facilities in Taipei and Kaohsiung are new, vibrant places full of potential. The question is whether the quality and quantity of smaller facilities countrywide that are crucial to promoting a sports culture are sufficient.
Taiwan has a population of more than 23 million people. Trying to create a strong sports culture from the top down — for example by hosting the World Games and the Deaflympics and building Taipei City municipal sports centers — is expensive and time-consuming.
Nor is it clear that international athletic events and luxurious sports facilities have a significant effect on promoting sports in Taiwan.
Badminton is one example: Sports centers in Taipei charge an average of NT$500 per hour in the evenings and on the weekends to use facilities.
If a family of four wants to play badminton twice a week for two hours each time, they would be paying NT$8,000 per month for court fees alone.
If they then choose to go swimming once a week, they would be spending more than NT$10,000 per month on sports. How many families in Taiwan can afford that?
Therefore, we have to get back to basics and start promoting sports more widely.
If we start by integrating sporting infrastructure at schools with community facilities, that would mean that the sports facilities at almost 3,500 elementary and high schools would be jointly managed through a public mechanism.
Athletic grounds, gyms, pools, classrooms and underground parking lots in schools are public facilities that everyone should have access to. They are also the most precious spatial resources a community possesses.
With elementary and high school districts basically overlapping with neighborhood and borough districts, combining school and community resources is the only option in urban areas. It is also the best policy for remote rural areas. This has been done in the past.
While most schools open their sports fields or centers to the public at nighttime and on the weekends, most of the people using them drop by to jog or play basketball with friends.
This is a far cry from the goal of establishing a nationwide sports culture.
Neither the quality and quantity of sports facilities at schools — including sports centers and swimming pools — nor the cleaning and maintenance of these facilities is ideal. On the whole, the degree to which schools have opened their facilities to the public and the level of service they provide are not in step with the pace of Taiwan’s development.
They also lack active operation strategies and management goals. This means we are straying father and farther from the ideal of a sports-friendly society with internationally renowned athletes.
The operations and management of sports facilities at elementary and high schools should be separated from the administrative systems of the schools. In addition, these facilities should be improved and expanded for the broader community.
They should then be closely integrated with the Sports Affairs Council and individual sports organizations, while professional sports coaches and venue managers should be employed to manage them.
Schools should have access to facilities for physical education classes during school hours, and specialized facilities and sports services should be open to sports organizations. The rest of the time, these facilities should be open to the public for a reasonable fee.
Sports classes should be offered, community athletics teams organized and a system for regional competitions established. Each community’s athletes should be encouraged to create a grassroots anchor for sports.
In the mid to long term, funds should be allocated to improve community sports infrastructure.
We also need to make schools more welcoming and accessible to the public to encourage a healthy sports culture rooted in on our communities.
If we spend 10 or 20 years on developing a sports culture in schools and communities — and spend the same amount of money as we have spent on a couple of big sports events — Taiwan will become a stronger competitor at major sports events and win international praise for its athletic achievements.
Peter Wu is an assistant professor of geography at National Taiwan Normal University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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