President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) delivered a message of consolation and support for Taiwan’s Olympic competitors, after three strong medal contenders — the Chan sisters in the women’s doubles tennis, and female archer Tan Ya-ting (譚雅婷) — suffered losses and were knocked out of competition yesterday.
“You have given everything you’ve got, and fought all the way to the end. In the hearts of our citizens, you have been outstanding as the pride of Taiwan,” Tsai wrote on Facebook.
Tsai accompanied her message with photographs of Tan and the Chan sisters in action yesterday, along with the words: “The Olympic spirit” and “Remain proud even in defeat.”
It was not a good day for Taiwanese athletes at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as fans and local media had great hopes for Tan, ranked No. 2 in the world, and the third-seeded sister pairing of Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴).
In the quarter-final round, Tan battled against Lisa Unruh of Germany in an exciting, closely matched duel.
They won two sets each, with Tan taking the first and third sets 27-25 and 28-27, and Unruh taking the second and fourth sets 28-26.
In the deciding fifth set, both shot 26 to remain tied, forcing a single-arrow shoot-off.
Tan’s arrow deviated slightly to land in the red outer ring for 7 points.
She said afterward that a strong gust of wind had affected her shot.
Staving off pressure, Unruh took the stand and hit the gold ring for 9 points to win.
Tan finished the women’s single competition in fifth, while Unruh advanced to seize the silver medal.
About her final shot, Tan said: “It felt OK when I was getting ready, but it got windy when I pulled back the bow and prepared to shoot. As I released the arrow, the wind picked up more. I knew then the wind would make my arrow stray off target.”
Her coach, Ni Ta-chih (倪大智), also said it was the “freak wind” that made the difference.
“However, we cannot blame the wind, or being unlucky, and should go home to get better training and do better next time. Tan did an excellent job here in Rio, and she had firm determination and strong fighting spirit,” Ni added. “Tan took this close defeat in stride. She did not languish in gloom.”
“We can see the future is bright for Taiwan’s archery team, and I know Tan will win a medal in future competitions,” he said.
In women’s doubles tennis, the Chan sisters started the match by taking three straight games against veteran Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis and her Swiss partner Timea Bacsinszky to go up 3-0.
However, world No. 1 women’s doubles player Hingis, who was also a world No. 1 singles player in the 1990s, made adjustments and took charge on the court, as she led her Swiss compatriot to win the next 12 points consecutively, and defeated the Chan sisters by 6-3 and 6-0.
Chan Jung-jan was inconsolable at crashing out and was in tears in the post-game interview.
“It has been eight years since we last participated in the Olympics, so we really wanted to perform well. It means a lot to represent Taiwan and play at the Olympics so we can help our country to gain exposure in international sports,” Chan said.
“We trained hard and made preparations through the past eight years for this, but it had to end here,” she said.
“We are very disappointed at the outcome, and I cried because of the heartache and painful feelings in me,” she added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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