Two of Taiwan's Olympians were given a truckers' escort to the Winter Games, just in time for the opening ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Steve Lee (李佳訓) and Sam Huang (黃柳宗) had set off from Chicago with the luge and bobsled teams' equipment and were struggling to make it in time when they made a call for help over CB radio.
The "Texas Outlaw" and "Bam Bam" rode to the rescue.
"I told the truckers that we were going to Salt Lake City for the Olympics," luge coach Huang told the Taipei Times by e-mail.
"We told them we were with the Taiwan bobsled and luge teams ... and they offered to help us by giving us an escort all the way."
Huang got a ride in Bam Bam's 18-wheeler Peterbilt truck, Lee followed close behind in his Chevy and Outlaw led the convoy.
"The truckers radioed to check on the road conditions and to see if there were state troopers ahead," Huang said.
"They were on a mission: Get the Taiwan team to Utah in time."
They managed it, but not before the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee phoned to say that Lee -- who has partly funded his team's efforts -- would not be carrying the flag into the stadium, as expected.
"Steve feels that with all the hardships he has endured and with the money he has spent on the team, the least the [Olympic committee] can do for him is let him lead our team into the Olympic arena." Huang said.
Then, another call from the Olympic committee, this time to say that if three-time Olympian and bobsled pilot Chen Chin-san (陳金山) did not show up by yesterday they would "kick all the athletes out of the Village," Huang reported.
Chen and Chen Chien-sheng (陳建盛) had canceled their tickets to the US because of a spat with the government over funding.
They had said the government had not paid for a new bobsled, equipment, traveling expenses and uniforms, as had been promised.
After coming to an eleventh-hour agreement with the National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports they eventually agreed to go.
The two athletes were expected to arrive in the US yesterday.
"It's funny how things happen," Huang said. "It has been such a struggle for the bobsled team to be here, the funding scandal with the Olympic committee, our Pilot Chen threatening to boycott the Olympics and now this ... ."
On a more positive note, it looks as if Taiwan will have a competitive bobsled after all.
A Salt Lake City high school has made a bobsled which the Taiwan team said it will test out.
The "Dresden" model bobsled promises to be faster than the "Podar" model the team had rented. Huang said they will also be able to use the same kind of runners that the US bobsled team is using.
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