The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday urged the Executive Yuan to organize as soon as possible a strong delegation for attending next year's World Games in Germany. It said that with Taiwan's first-ever gold medal win in the Athens Olympics still recent, the time is ripe to draw up and launch a long-term project to encourage athletic excellence and fight for the country's glory.
"Those two Olympic gold medals have boosted the morale of the nation," Kaohsiung City deputy mayor Lin Yung-chien (林永堅) said. "Now the government should take the opportunity to improve athletes' training environment."
Lin said that people are still celebrating the gold medal wins, and that private companies and schools have been encouraged to pledge funds and venues to cultivate more world-class athletes.
"The government should put more effort into efficiently integrating those resources, to build up a complete and new system for athlete training," he said.
"For example, the cabinet could set up a task force for selecting the athletes," he said, "and more importantly, raise rewards for those who win medals."
According to national regulations, the World Games gold medal winner can only win NT$400,000 (US$11,500), while the Olympic gold medal winner receives NT$12 million (US$354,000).
"The city government hope the Executive Yuan will amend the law to give gold medal winners at least NT$1 million (US$28,500)," Lin said, "and we will look for private companies to provide the same amount in order to encourage athletes."
Kaohsiung City will hold the 2009 World Games and the city government will present an eight-minute program during the 2005 World Games in Duisburg, Germany, to promote Taiwan and introduce Kaohsiung.
Lin said the government seems to be only interested in the Olympic Games, and has forgotten the nation's extraordinary achievements in the World Games.
"During the 2001 World Games in Akita, Japan, Taiwan won three gold medals, three silvers, and five bronzes, ranking 14 among a total of 92 countries," said Lin. "We performed even better than China."
Yang Ching-shun (
Taiwan's delegation also won silver medals in powerlifting and roller sports and bronze medals in billiards, powerlifting and korf-ball.
Lin said that the World Games are covered by international media and are a great opportunity to promote Taiwan, "but we must perform well in the 2005 World Games, then the international community will pay more attention to our country."
Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), head of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, echoed Lin, saying that the cabinet will turn the National Sports Training Center into a private organization, which will free it from regulations.
"We can integrate the civil sector and government resources to adopt a highly flexible system for cultivating athletes," Yeh said.
The first World Games were launched in Santa Clara, California in 1980, with 12 non-Olympic sports. The federations of those 12 sports organized the International World Games Association (IWGA).
Right now, the World Games are held under IWGA's auspices. There are now 32 international sports federations governing the World Games.
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