Team Taiwan will come away from the 2004 Athens Olympics with five medals -- two gold, two silver and one bronze -- having at last realized its dream of joining the ranks of the world's athletic champions.
The team secured the biggest medal tally in the nation's Olympic history, ranking 31st in the final medals table out of a total of 202 countries participating -- an improvement of 28 places from its standing of 58th following the Sydney Games in 2000.
"My dream has come true, and we are satisfied with the result of the nation's first gold medals. I will feel no regrets, even though I have to retire," said Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from Taiwan.
In addition to the taekwondo athletes Chu Mu-yen (
The 17-day Athens Olympics was to end with a glorious closing ceremony last night, in which some 40 Taiwanese athletes were to represent the country's delegation. The event was to be festive, cosmopolitan and stylish.
Unlike the opening ceremony, the details of the closing ceremony were not kept secret. From Aug. 24, for three successive days, dress rehearsals were underway in a small area next to where the opening ceremony was held. A single spotlight was used in these proceedings, which otherwise took place in pitch darkness, so that photographers could not take pictures of them.
The ceremony was to begin at 2:15am Taiwan time.
Weather forecasters were predicting a clear evening in Athens, with the moon visible in the sky.
The closing ceremony's designer, Dimitris Papaioannou told a news conference that he wanted to enable the whole world to experience the happiness of a Greek festival and to take part in a Greek feast, before declaring that although the Athens Olympics is now over, the excitement of the event will always remain in the hearts of the people of the world.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique