Failing to support athletes
Nurturing an athlete to compete for the nation is not an easy task, in particular to represent the nation at the Olympic Games. For the athlete, it is an honor, but it also means pressure.
Tennis player Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) said: “I was not raised by the state, I was raised by society. I am a professional athlete and I play for my fans.”
In one short sentence, she exposed the hardship and frustrations faced by professional athletes.
Early last month, Hsieh posted a statement on Facebook, saying: “Playing singles without your coach is like playing without your racket. Do they want me to go to Rio and just play around?”
She also said she had participated in nine tournaments in the past few months to qualify for the Olympics, adding that the whole team was under pressure and that she had taken 10 times more painkillers than during her entire career combined to be able to continue playing at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament in Marseille in June.
She said she even participated in the qualifying rounds in a doubles tournament, which she normally never does, to qualify for the Olympics. How much of an effort have the athletes made to qualify for the Olympics, and how much of an effort has the Sports Administration made to fight for the rights and interests of the athletes on the national team?
The administration lays down its policy direction every year, saying that it will implement its talent cultivation white paper and set up a mechanism to nurture talented athletes to build a sustainable foundation for them.
Despite this, pole vaulter Yeh Yao-wen (葉耀文) was forced to withdraw from the International Association of Athletics Federations’ World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, in July last year because his pole was missing; billiards player Wu Jia-qing (吳珈慶) switched his allegiance to China in 2011; no breakfast was served at the World Baseball Classic in Taichung in 2013 and so on.
The administration is in charge of all sports-related affairs, and provides assistance and guidance, but it is not doing a good job. Not only is it stifling the athletes’ potentials, it is also causing professional athletes to shrink back from representing the nation. This is not the policy of a nation that understands the importance of sports.
Liao Wei-yao
Taipei
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