President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday met with three officials from the International University Sports Federation (FISU) to show his support for Taipei’s bid to host the 2017 Summer Universiade.
“Objectively speaking, we have a lot of the infrastructure needed already in place. From a more subjective perspective, we have an extremely strong will to host this important event,” Ma told FISU assessors Hisato Igarashi and Marian Dymalski, and Summer Universiade director Marc Vandenplas.
Taipei is vying with the Brazilian capital of Brasilia to host the 2017 world university games, the world’s premier sports competition for student athletes. FISU will decide the host city toward the end of next month.
Ma described Taipei as a city that very much values sports, citing the popularity of the sports centers in each of the city’s 12 districts that were launched when Ma was Taipei mayor and completed under his successor, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
“The average number of visits at each sports center is as high as 1 million a month. I believe this is a tremendous record,” Ma said.
Ma said if Taipei were to win the right to host the event, it would yield excellent results because of his and Hau’s strong backing of sports activities.
The president has a reputation of being a long-time jogger and he actively promotes jogging, swimming and now biking, which has become a major activity in Taiwan.
“We want to build 1,500km of bike trails around the nation. We have organized a Tour de Taiwan, just like the Tour de France, to promote cycling,” he said.
Ma also acknowledged the role of geopolitics and past conflicts across the Taiwan Strait in placing roadblocks in the country’s attempts to host international sporting events.
“The Republic of China [ROC] has faced many obstacles when participating in sports events. However, the situation has gotten better with improved cross-strait rapport,” he said. “Because we have not had many opportunities to host international events, we cherish every opportunity and will push for perfection. As the president of the ROC, I promise we will definitely achieve this.”
The FISU officials were scheduled to conclude their four-day visit yesterday and then prepare a report on their findings for the executive committee, which will have the final say on which city hosts the 2017 Summer Universiade.
No Taiwanese city has ever hosted a Universiade and Taiwan has lost twice in recent bids. Greater Kaohsiung failed to get the nod for this year’s Universiade, which was won by Shenzhen, China, and Taipei was beaten out by Gwangju, South Korea, for the right to host the event in 2015.
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