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Taiwanese bowler prepares for Games

Holding his most prized possession close to his chest — a purple bowling ball — four-time gold medalist tenpin bowling champion Chang Li-hsiao (張立孝) yesterday promised to bag another for the Taiwanese team in the 2009 Deaflympics, which begin next Saturday.

Chang is one of the 137 hearing­-impaired Taiwanese athletes to compete in the upcoming Games — the biggest delegation in the history of Taiwan’s participation in the Deaflympics.

The bowler of 12 years wowed the country in the 2005 Deaflympics when he brought home four of the nine gold medals won by the Taiwanese team and said he hoped to do it again this year.

“We estimate that this year, the Chinese Taipei team can win at least 12 gold medals. Our forte is bowling, table tennis, taekwondo and karate,” Chao Yu-ping (趙玉平), secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf, who lost his hearing at age five because of measles, told a press conference yesterday.

Chao said that in 2005, the Chinese Taipei delegation had only 71 athletes, but still managed to win nine golds, four silvers and three bronzes, making it No. 5 in the overall standings.

This year, the size of the delegation has nearly doubled, but the total number of athletes also rose to more than 3,000, coming from 91 countries, making this year’s competition tougher than ever, said Lin Kuo-jui (林國瑞), the chief operating officer of the Taipei Organizing Committee.

The youngest competitor is 12-year-old swimmer Chen Tse-ying (陳梓盈) from Taiwan and the oldest is a 68-year-old bowler from Austria.

Lin said the Taiwanese athletes were currently spread across different parts of the country for the final days of intense training.
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