The performance of Taiwanese athletes at the Tokyo Olympic Games has renewed interest in the nation, but sustaining that momentum requires government support.
Taiwanese table tennis player Lin Yun-ju’s (林昀儒) seven matches against China’s Fan Zhendong (樊振東) on Thursday were described as an “epic” battle. Lin’s composed demeanor in facing world No. 1 Fan won him considerable admiration. A commentator on China Central Television even remarked that 19-year-old Lin would remain the foremost rival for Chinese table tennis players over the next decade. Although Lin was ultimately defeated by Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov in Friday’s bronze medal bout, the German also affirmed Lin’s potential.
Viewers were also exhilarated by badminton star Tai Tzu-ying’s (戴資穎) nail-biting women’s singles quarter-final against Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon on Friday. The players earned accolades after they successively dropped to the ground to pick off stunning returns before Tai emerged victorious.
Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who on Tuesday clinched Taiwan’s first gold medal of this year’s Games, has become a paragon of the Olympic spirit. Although she failed to break the 140kg clean and jerk world record she set in 2019, an image has gone viral on social media of her dropping to the ground smiling widely after failing a 141kg attempt.
A true athlete inspires respect, as illustrated in the performances of Lin, Tai, Kuo and many other athletes who compete for excellence at the Games, despite the scant audience.
In Taiwan, an Olympic gold medal winner is awarded NT$20 million (US$715,154), a silver medal winner NT$7 million and a bronze medal winner NT$5 million, but the rewards do not guarantee that athletes can replicate their success.
While some athletes will continue their careers, others will soon retire. Instead of only celebrating star athletes, the government should find ways to harness their experience to develop fresh talent.
The Ministry of Science and Technology has since 2018 been funding a four-year research program on precision sports science, using artificial intelligence and other technologies to assist training. The program should be expanded to cover more athletes and disciplines. Sports science should be better utilized to help athletes adjust their physiological and psychological states under different circumstances. These programs could also help create Taiwanese role models to inspire local talent, who often instead look up to foreign athletes.
If sports can become a sustainable industry with steady funding, infrastructure and audiences, athletes can take more pride in their profession. In Taiwan, students who excel at sports must deal with a common prejudice that they might be physically strong but simpleminded, a stereotype that has grown from teachers placing more emphasis on academic performance. Such bias should be eliminated, starting with allowing students to freely develop their strengths in different disciplines.
With the names of Taiwanese athletes making headlines, some foreign media have been asking: “What is Chinese Taipei?” or “Why is Taiwan not called Taiwan at the Olympics?” It is a grievance of Taiwanese that their nation is not correctly represented at the Olympics or at many other international sporting events. That is mainly because the world’s major powers choose to embrace a “one China” policy and acquiesce to Beijing squeezing Taiwan off the international stage.
Nevertheless, Taiwanese have proven that politics cannot prevent them from shining. After winning a semi-final match on Friday, the badminton duo of Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) wrote on Facebook: “I am from Taiwan.” That is an indisputable fact written in history.
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