New Sports Administration Director-General Chang Shao-hsi (張少熙) yesterday said that preparing the national team to compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games next year would be the agency’s top priority.
Chang took up the post yesterday after his predecessor, Kao Chin-hsung (高俊雄), in July returned to a teaching position at National Sports University.
At his inauguration, Chang said he hopes to set an example through his effort and performance.
Photo: Lin Yue-fu, Taipei Times
He did not pull any strings to get the position, he said.
He would contribute to the sports industry by helping more Taiwanese athletes reach their potential, Chang said.
The Tokyo Games, scheduled for July next year, would be the agency’s most important task, Chang said, adding that the event would bring a powerful change to Taiwanese sports.
“We are carrying the hopes and expectations of Taiwanese on our shoulders,” he said.
“As such, we would thoroughly enforce all necessary measures, from preventing COVID-19 to training and care for athletes,” he said.
Asked about athletes who still face qualification events to compete in Tokyo and the challenges they face amid restrictions on international travel, Chang said that no one can say for sure what would happen in the run-up to the Games.
“We will do everything we can help athletes prepare for the Games,” he said.
Sports Administration officials said that they would ask coaches and athletes to look at every scheduled international tournament and gauge whether the nation’s athletes could skip some of them to focus on the most important ones.
The agency is considering arranging quarantine facilities specifically for athletes returning from qualifying tournaments overseas, the officials said.
Prior to his current role, Chang taught at National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) Department of Physical Education, served as dean of the College of Sports and Recreation and held administrative positions there.
He was also chairman of the university’s National Society of Physical Education.
Chang had been a member of the national boxing team.
However, he was unable to compete in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow as Taiwan joined the US and other democratic countries in boycotting the Games to protest the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
NTNU agreed to giving Chang two years to head the Sports Administration.
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