The 12-day Taipei Summer Universiade closed with a flourish on Wednesday last week.
Nowhere is fairness as important as it is at international sporting events. No matter whether your skin is black or white or whether your country is rich or poor, big or small, when the race begins, everyone sets out from the same starting line.
At sporting events, everything must be open and aboveboard. Athletes who cheat and referees who let “patriotic” sentiments interfere with their judgements will be held in disdain.
Thankfully, hardly any such negative scenes took place at the Universiade, but some incidents that happened in and around the Games are worth a second look.
China, geographically the closest country to the host, Taiwan, was absent from the opening ceremony. Was it that the Chinese team could not get here on time, or were political considerations involved?
Then came the closing ceremony, and China was absent again. Were they in a rush to go home, or was politics involved again? Who is it that insists on politicizing what should be a straightforward sporting event?
With his last throw in the men’s javelin event on Aug. 26, Taiwan’s Cheng Chao-tsun (鄭兆村) not only won the gold medal, but also broke the Asian javelin record set by China’s Zhao Qinggang (趙慶剛) at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
That evening, the sports section of China’s Sohu Web site posted an article questioning whether Cheng had achieved this result by cheating, and the article called on the Asian Athletics Association to investigate.
However, the next day the International Association of Athletics Federations posted a news release on its official Web site under the headline “Cheng shatters Asian javelin throw record with 91.36m effort in Taipei City.”
China has only itself to blame for any embarrassment. The story did not end there. It later emerged that the javelin Cheng used during the competition had been lent to him by Japanese team member Kenji Ogura.
After Cheng set his new record, Ogura decided to part with his beloved javelin, which he gave to Zheng two days later.
What a stark contrast there is between Chinese reluctance to see someone else succeed and Japanese willingness to salute their rivals.
Another event that has nothing to do with politics or sports demonstrated a cultural spirit other than sportsmanship.
On Tuesday morning last week, the Japanese men’s soccer team were spotted picking up litter and sweeping in the Linkou (林口) Community Sports Park near the Athletes’ Village.
The reasons they gave were very simple: “It made us feel bad to see the park messy,” “This is a place where children play” and “We think we should do a little something for Taiwan.”
If a lot of Taiwanese like Japan, could it be because Japanese are so likable? Even though they came to Taiwan for such a short time, they still thought they should contribute something to the host country.
In contrast, certain people who have spent most of their lives eating Taiwanese rice and drinking Taiwanese water, and claim descent from “the land of courtesy and propriety” are always trying to put Taiwan down. They should be ashamed of themselves.
US taekwondo competitor Samery Moras departed Taiwan before the end of the Games, but as soon as she got back to the US she said on Instagram: “Back in the States, but already missing Taiwan.”
At the closing ceremony, Canadian and Brazilian athletes entered the stadium carrying banners that said in Chinese “Thank you, Taipei,” and the US men’s basketball team wrote a letter to the Taipei Times (“US men’s basketball team extends thanks to Taipei,” Aug. 31, page 16) thanking Taipei for hosting the Games and calling it a “world-class city.”
All these things make one feel that there is more to the Games than the speed, skill, strength and beauty displayed in the sports arena.
As well as winning medals and breaking records, Taiwan undoubtedly won the friendship of people from many lands. The spectacle of many foreign athletes entering the closing ceremony with Republic of China flags draped across their shoulders was a moving sight for the often-belittled Taiwanese.
The sad thing is that the flag that the host nation could not carry into the stadium was instead taken in on the shoulders of guests from other nations.
Among many unprecedented events at the Universiade, the irony of that scene is a hard thing for Taiwanese to bear.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor of National Hsinchu University of Education and a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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