Despite winning two gold medals and one silver at this year’s World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Perth, Scotland, the Taiwanese men’s team from National Nantou Senior High School returned to Taiwan on Friday worried that they might not have enough funds to cover their travel expenses.
Manager Huang Kuo-hsuen (黃國軒) said the team had accrued total travel expenses of NT$3 million (US$101,800) for taking part in the competition, and after deducting NT$700,000 and NT$200,000 in donations by the Chinese Taipei Tug of War Association and the Renewal Foundation respectively, as well as NT$980,000 from the competitors and trainers, the team still needs an additional NT$1.12 million to cover expenses.
When asked whether the Ministry of Education would subsidize the bill, Huang said the team had not applied for a subsidy prior to the competition because it was afraid the ministry would take too long to approve it and the competitors had little time to make a decision on whether to attend.
Huang said ministry rules stipulate that it would only subsidize a competition for one kind of sport once per year, adding that the team had decided to reserve the subsidies for the Outdoor Tug of War Competition in Sweden at the end of the year.
If all else fails, coaches Chen Chien-wen (陳建文) and Chang Chih-ching (張志清) pledged that they would shoulder the debt. They said they would not allow the team to be demoralized further, adding that the team would prove themselves to be the best team in the Tug of War World Cup in two years.
They were referring to an incident in which some team members were disqualified from the 560kg category for using detergent to clean their shoes to help them gain better traction. The Taiwanese competitors who were disqualified said that although using detergent to clean footwear was a common practice in the competition, the Taiwanese men’s team were the only team to have members disqualified for doing so.
Taipei City’s Jingmei Girls High School principal Lin Li-hua (林麗華), whose team of 28 competitors won medals in the 500kg, 540kg and mixed 600kg categories, said that because the competition was held in Europe this year, travel expenses averaged NT$90,000 per competitor.
Average expenses per competitor to attend foreign sports competitions range from NT$30,000 to NT$100,000, Lin said, adding that it is only possible for teams to participate in these events if they are backed by donations from companies or corporations.
“Last year, when HTC sponsored our teams in the European Championships, we came back with two gold medals,” she said.
The government’s policy of subsidizing one sport per year is not enough, Lin said, adding that if athletes were to rely only on government subsidies, Taiwan would only be able to send one team of 10 people to attend one category of sports competition per year.
Sports Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chen Yun-lien (陳雲蓮) said that even though the mixed team won a gold medal, because it was the first international competition of its kind, the council would not be giving out prize money for the win.
Chen Yun-lien also said that while the Tug of War Association was subsidizing the bill for teams attending the championship competitions, other teams attending the open competitions would have to foot their own bills.
Additional reporting by Yeh Shih-hung
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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