Taiwan’s participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sports, with the name it has competed under since 1984 — Chinese Taipei — drawing as much attention as its athletes.
However, with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad set to begin in Paris on Friday, the exploits of Taiwan’s athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country’s debut in Melbourne in 1956 deserve a nod.
Many of Taiwan’s medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status — Maysang Kalimud and Chi Cheng, the only medal winners before the Chinese Taipei era.
Photo: CNA
Kalimud, an Amis athlete who died in 2007, won silver in the decathlon in Rome in 1960 when the Taiwan team competed under the name “Formosa,” while Chi won a bronze in the women’s 80m hurdles in Mexico City in 1968 competing under the name “Taiwan.”
They made the Olympics relevant in a country that previously had little international sporting success.
Cho Seiken was the first Taiwanese to compete in the Olympics. In 1932, during the Japanese colonial period, he made history in Los Angeles by representing Japan in the men’s 400m hurdles and men’s 4x400m relay events, although he did not medal.
Taiwan competed in five consecutive Summer Games from 1956 to 1972, before politics kept it out of the Games in 1976 and 1980. Under a 1981 agreement with the International Olympic Committee, the Republic of China Olympic Committee was renamed the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee with the nation to compete as Chinese Taipei.
The Paris Games would be Taiwan’s 11th Olympics as Chinese Taipei, and its 16th appearance at the Summer Games.
Since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Taiwanese athletes have won seven golds, 10 silvers and 17 bronzes. The team has won at least one medal in all editions except the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Chen Shih-hsin won Taiwan’s first gold medal in Athens on Aug. 27, 2004, when she topped the women’s taekwondo flyweight division. Less than 20 minutes later, she was joined by Chu Mu-yen, who won gold in the men’s flyweight division.
Taiwan’s best showing was at the Tokyo Games in 2021, when they won 12 medals: two golds, four silvers and six bronzes.
Taiwan’s only two-time gold medalist Hsu Shu-ching, won the women’s 53kg weightlifting division at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Four Taiwanese athletes have medaled twice at the Olympics. Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun and Chu both have won a gold and a bronze, while Huang Chih-hsiung and Chen Jing earned a silver and a bronze each in taekwondo and table tennis respectively.
No Taiwanese athlete has won two or more medals in a single Olympic Games, but Jing — who defected to Taiwan in 1991 after failing to make China’s 1990 national team — won a gold in singles and silver in doubles while competing for China in the 1988 Seoul Games.
Since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Taiwan has consistently medaled in weightlifting except for the Athens Games in 2004, and in taekwondo in all but the Beijing Games in 2008.
That success might not continue in Paris, as Taiwan is only sending three weightlifters to France compared with seven to Tokyo, and Kuo, who won a gold medal three years ago, has been struggling with injuries.
Taiwan would also be represented in Paris by only one taekwondo athlete, Tokyo bronze medalist Lo Chia-ling, compared with four three years ago.
Taiwan has earned multiple medals in archery (four), table tennis (three) and badminton (two), while winning one each in judo, golf, artistic gymnastics, boxing, karate and baseball.
The youngest athletes debuting in Paris are male paddler Kao Cheng-jui, female shooter Li Tsai-chi and swimmer Angie Coe, all aged 19.
Table tennis player Chuang Chih-yuan and markswoman Lin Yi-chun are the oldest at 43 years old. If either medal in Paris, they would become the oldest medal winner for Taiwan. Jing holds that record; she was 32 when she won bronze in Sydney.
Chuang would be the first Taiwanese to participate in six consecutive Olympics when he competes in Paris, while four women would be making their fourth consecutive appearance: Kuo, badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying, shooter Lei Chien-ying and paddler Chen Szu-yu.
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