After complaining about flying economy class to the Olympic Games, Taiwanese badminton player Tai Tzu-ying appeared satisfied with her hotel room in Tokyo, praising its proximity to the badminton venue.
“It saves commuting time and allows more time to rest,” the 27-year-old Tai wrote on Instagram yesterday morning. “It’s very good.”
The Athletes’ Village is about 50 minutes by car from the badminton venue, but the hotel is only a 10-minute drive, she said.
Photo: AFP / Badminton Association of Thailand
“It’ll give me more time to rest and prepare, whether before or after a match,” Tai added.
Taiwan’s badminton team is staying at the Marroad Inn Tokyo in Chofu City, west of downtown Tokyo and about 2km from the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza, one of the Olympic Game venues.
On Monday, Tai posted a photograph of her sitting in an economy-class seat on a China Airlines charter flight that flew Taiwan’s athletes and support staff to Tokyo.
She wrote that she missed traveling to international competitions on EVA Airlines, when she would fly in business class with its bigger seats.
The government had promised to seat the athletes in business class on their Olympic Games flights, but on Monday, the plane’s 36-seat business cabin could only accommodate officials, coaches and team doctors.
The Sports Administration said that only economy class had the room to leave empty seats between the athletes, but pledged that all of the athletes would fly in business class on the way home.
Tai’s Instagram post drew an apology from President Tsai Ing-wen, who had pledged that athletes and coaches traveling to major international sports events during her administration would fly in business class.
Premier Su Teng-chang also apologized.
He said that he would review the seating arrangements, including finding those responsible, after the Games.
Sixty-eight athletes from Taiwan are to compete in 18 sports — including badminton, shooting, golf and weightlifting — at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
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