The Sports Administration yesterday said it would stop paying competition and training subsidies to speedskater Huang Yu-ting (黃郁婷) for two years as discipline for her behavior before and during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The cessation of subsidies went into effect yesterday after a special meeting on Wednesday evening, said Lan Kun-ten (藍坤田), head of the Sports Administration’s Competitive Athletics Division.
The meeting was attended by members of the nation’s Olympic Committee and Skating Union, legal experts, academics and Huang herself, who is in Norway, via videoconference, media reports said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Huang was asked if she had anything to say, at which point she apologized, the reports said.
Huang and another skater reportedly filed for a joint training subsidy of NT$1.9 million (US$67,710) last year.
The controversy surrounding Huang began on Jan. 23 when she posted a training video on social media, showing her wearing the Chinese national team’s skinsuit.
Huang removed the post on Feb. 3 after it began attracting negative attention.
The 33-year-old skater later apologized, and while the Sports Administration criticized her for being insensitive to the subtleties of cross-strait politics, it initially said that she would not be punished.
Huang served as one of Taiwan’s two flagbearers at the Olympics’ opening ceremony, and was allowed to compete as planned.
However, Huang again attracted controversy when, after finishing 26th in the women’s 1,500m race on Feb. 19, she told the Beijing Daily: “I felt as if I were competing on home turf.”
Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said in a statement on Feb. 19 that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) had instructed the Ministry of Education — which is in charge of the Sports Administration — to conduct an investigation into Huang’s “inappropriate actions” and determine disciplinary action.
Huang did not return to Taiwan after competing at the Olympics, reportedly traveling directly to the US on Feb. 19, one day before the Games’ closing ceremony.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have criticized penalizing Huang, saying that laws and guidelines do not state that a Taiwanese athlete representing Taiwan abroad cannot wear the uniform of another country.
KMT Legislator Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) said that the government was creating an atmosphere of fear while encouraging anti-China sentiment.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
RSS