Going Beyond Asian Games; Making Breakthroughs in the Olympics -Ministry of Education Republic of China (Taiwan)

Going Beyond Asian Games; Making Breakthroughs in the Olympics

Date: 2007-02-09

Going Beyond Asian Games; Making Breakthroughs in the Olympics

Taiwan athletes won 9 gold, 10 silver and 27 bronze medals at 15th Asian Games Doha 2006. Most of them were still school students at that time. These student athletes won 7 of the 9 gold medals. To encourage them and recognize their outstanding performance at an international athletic contest, the Ministry of Education (MOE) publicly commended their stellar performance at 10 a.m. on February 9, 2007 with Minister Tu Cheng-sheng handing out rewards as an encouragement.

At the ceremony, Minister Tu noted since those who won major prizes at international athletic contests were mostly students studying at senior high schools, vocational schools, colleges and graduate schools, the MOE would work with National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to cultivate more outstanding athletes for international athletic events. Minister Tu said the MOE had begun aggressively encouraging school students to participat in athletic activities. Measures taken include holding various kinds of ball games to increase opportunities for students to exercise in an effort to raise the athletic population. Meantime, athletes for international athletic events can be chosen from them.

Among them, Chu Mu-Yen was the Taekwondo gold medalist of the 2004 Olympics, while Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang won second place of the women's doubles category in Australian Open Tennis Championships 2007, making Taiwan better known to audience of the grand slam and drawing more attention to Taiwan from the world. They are Taiwan's pride after Chien-Ming Wang.

The MOE believes physical education of schools is the cornerstone of training national athletic teams. It lays the foundation for national athletic performance. In order to encourage athletes to improve themselves and break their own records, the Minister personally handed awards to athletes winning the first three places and commended their performance, hoping that they not only win medals in Asian Games but also in the Olympics.

Minister Tu hoped that all students having received commendation could continue to improve their physical strength and skills and study harder in an effort to raise their personal quality so that they can stay calm on the arena. He hoped they could win more medals in the 2008 Olympics, creating more examples of Taiwan's pride.