World No. 1 women’s golfer Yani Tseng (曾雅妮), who has had one of the greatest years of any professional golfer in history, is to be granted a special award by the Sports Affairs Council (SAC).
Tseng has been left off the council’s list of nominees for the Sports Elite Awards, according to a shortlist published by the council on Monday.
The awards were founded in 1999 to honor athletes, coaches, teams and individuals that have made distinguished contributions to sport in the past year.
The council said the shortlist was chosen from a list of nominees put forward by various organizations, including schools, government departments and sports groups.
Tseng, arguably the nation’s highest-profile sports figure, was not nominated by any of them. Therefore the council decided to grant Tseng a “special” award in honor of the 22-year-old’s contribution to Taiwan’s golf scene, council officials said. The decision came after criticism from lawmakers across party lines yesterday.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) said the council left out Tseng because the Golf Association of the Republic of China did not nominate her, adding that the council should have nominated Tseng itself.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) criticized the council, saying it was bowing to public pressure by establishing a special award for Tseng.
Golf Association of the Republic of China chairman Hsu Tien-ya (許典雅) was quoted by local media as saying that the association did not nominate Tseng because her “accomplishment is beyond any award.”
“The council has not approved any of our nominees in the past, therefore we decided not to nominate anyone this year. Tseng does not need the award anyway,” Hsu said.
In light of Hsu’s remarks, Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said that all the council’s decisions were based on the principles of “fairness, justice and transparency.”
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