Participation rather than winning was the aim of the game for Taiwan's athletes who were gathering in Japan yesterday for the Winter Asian Games.
The nation's delegation of 28 people is led by National Olympic Council President Thomas Huang (黃大洲) and comprises seven officials, five coaches and 16 competitors.
The fifth Winter Asian Games, in Japan's northern prefecture of Aomori, will begin on Saturday and ends seven days later on Feb. 8.
Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee staffers would not go on record as saying the chances of a medal at the Games were "nothing," but privately admitted this was the case.
They said the aim was to participate at the Games -- slogan: "Asian beat to the world" -- rather than "go for gold."
Taiwan, they explained, had little snow and no sites for winter training camps, so they have tapped Taiwanese living abroad to compete for them.
The nation's figure skater and most of the curling team are based in the US, while the best snowboarder is from Japan. Just four short-track speedskaters are from Taiwan and live in the country.
A total of 1,095 athletes from 28 countries will compete at the Games, with China once again expected to dominate the medals table. At the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, China won 150 gold medals, or over 33 percent, of the total 427 available.
In other news, a delegation of 51 North Korean athletes and officials arrived yesterday in Japan to participate in the Winter Asian Games for the first time in more than a decade.
North Korea competed in October's Asian Games in South Korea. But it will be the first time for the isolated communist country to participate in the winter version since the 1990 event in Sapporo, Japan.
The team had no comment as it quickly walked past Japanese media in the arrival hall at Tokyo's Narita International Airport.
Outside the lobby, the team was greeted by dozens of pro-Pyongyang schoolchildren and students from Japan's Korean community, who sang Korean songs and presented each member with a bouquet of flowers.
North Korean officials had missed the original Dec. 31 application deadline, but Japanese organizers gave them an extension.
The North Koreans are competing in short-track speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey events, according to the entry list faxed by the North.
The Games will feature 12 sports, with 54 events.
The first Winter Asian Games were first proposed by Japan and were held in Sapporo City in 1986 and were set up to develop winter sports in Asia.
They were held in Sapporo again in 1990; in 1996 they were held in Harbin, China; and the fourth winter Games were hosted by Kangwon in South Korea in 1999.
The Asian Games is organized by the 45 National Olympic Committees of the Olympic Council of Asia.
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