About 140 athletes and their coaches are scheduled to leave today for the Asian Para Games in Indonesia, which open in Jakarta on Saturday.
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday handed the nation’s Olympic flag to the delegation at the ceremony held at the Sports Administration’s headquarters in Taipei.
Chen thanked the athletes and coaches for the time and effort they have made and wished them the best at the Asia Para Games, adding their performance would encourage other physically challenged individuals to exercise regularly and take part in competitive sports.
Photo: CNA
The 143-member delegation includes 89 athletes. They are to compete in 11 categories: track and field, swimming, powerlifting, shooting, archery, table tennis, judo, wheelchair tennis, badminton, wheelchair basketball and bowling.
Chang Wei-chieh (張維捷), one of the swimmers, is a senior studying applied foreign language at Takming University of Science and Technology.
Born with no shinbones, Chang learned to swim as a third-grader in elementary school, and his specialty is the 100m breaststroke, for which he holds a national record of 1 minute, 52:75 seconds.
“I don’t care if people call me a legless person, a robot or a freak. I am confident and tell everybody I’m an ironman,” Chang once posted on Facebook.
Chang said he hoped his experiences would inspire other physically challenged people to forget about how others might look at them and show their confidence in sports.
Given that the Asian Para Games are his first chance to represent the nation, Chang said he was really nervous, but he was also happy and thinks that it is going to be a cool experience.
He was honored to have received the subsidy from Chen on behalf of the delegation, and it motivated him to strive for his best performance, Chang said.
He trains for at least two hours per day, and US Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is his idol, he said, adding that he hopes to emulate Phelps’ performances.
Two women, Hu Kuang-chiu (胡光秋) and Yang Yi-cheng (楊伊宸), made it onto the national wheelchair badminton team for the first time.
About 2,400 athletes from 43 nations and regions in Asia are to compete in the Games in Jakarta.
Taiwan won four gold medals, 10 silvers and 24 bronzes at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea, finishing eighth in the total medal count.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
STAY COOL: The HPA recommended that people stay hydrated, use air-conditioning or fans while indoors, wear loose-fitting clothes and walk in the shade while outdoors Employers must implement measures such as installing cooling equipment, and providing drinking water and rest breaks for outdoor workers starting from Monday next week, the Taipei Department of Labor said on Sunday. Employers who fail to comply could face fines of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), the department said. Businesses in Taipei employing fewer than 100 workers, as well as registered self-employed workers with labor insurance coverage, could receive on-site assessments and guidance from occupational safety consultants to help them apply for central government subsidies to implement or improve heat-protection measures, it said. Under the Ministry of
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS