Badminton in Taiwan has almost doubled in popularity over the past decade, the Ministry of Sports said yesterday, attributing the growth to the overseas success of Taiwanese players.
Among people participating in ball-related sports, 9.4 percent play badminton, up 4.2 percentage points from the 5.2 percent reported in 2016, a survey conducted by the ministry found.
That growth appears significant compared with the 0.4 percentage point increase in public participation in ball-related sports since 2016, the ministry said.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
Interest in the sport was likely boosted by the success of Taiwanese shuttlers in international competitions, including Taiwan’s gold in the men's doubles at last year’s Paris Olympics and in the women's singles at the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships, it said.
Lee Yang (李洋), who has hung up his racket and is now minister of sport, paired up with Wang Chi-ling (王齊麟) to win back-to-back Olympic men's doubles gold medals in 2021 and last year, while Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), widely regarded as an all-time great, dominated the women's world rankings for a record 214 weeks, before officially declaring her retirement early last month.
Tai is the major reason behind the sport's increased popularity — one that even outpaces the country's notoriously low birth rate, said Lai Chin-ting (賴勁廷), a badminton coach at New Taipei City's Lu Jiang Elementary School.
Referring to a nationwide elementary school competition that ended last week, Lai said that such an event — consisting of individual and team categories — used to conclude within a week about 15 years ago.
“It took two weeks to finish all of them this year,” Lai said.
Records on the competition’s official Web site show that the event ran for eight days in 2015, compared with 13 days this year, with the total number of individuals, doubles and mixed teams growing from 415, 188 and 108 to 993, 391 and 229, respectively, over the same period.
Of the respondents to the ministry’s survey on Taiwanese nationals' exercise habits, 35.6 percent said that they engage in regular exercise, meaning at least three times a week, for at least 30 minutes at a time, at an intensity that causes a person to sweat and breathe heavily.
The number increased for a fifth consecutive year and was the highest reported since 2016, but the 0.3 percentage point hike was still within the 0.6 percentage point margin of error, the ministry said.
The survey, which involved 25,472 samples, was conducted from June to August, and targeted respondents aged 13 or older via telephone, the ministry said.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
VICTORY ABROAD: The team took home a fistful of medals and secured spots for the autumn’s Asian Games, scheduled for September in Nagoya Taiwan’s women’s team captured the overall title at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Mongolia on Sunday, finishing with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The strong showing, led by gold medalists Wang Chieh-ling and Chang Jui-en secured the full quota of available spots for Taiwan at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, in September. Wang opened Taiwan’s medal run by winning gold in the women’s under-46kg class on Thursday, the first day of competition. Liu Yu-yun later earned a silver in the under-49kg class. On the final day on Sunday, Chang won Taiwan’s second gold medal in the under-62kg event, and
The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
RSS