Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung presents a medal to Olympic gold medalist weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun

The Sports Administration held the 2021 Guo Guang Athletic Medal and Sports Science Research and Development Award Presentation Ceremony on December 3rd. Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung publicly commended outstanding sports science researchers and medal-winning athletes in international competitions in 2021. This year, a total of NT$29.45 million in Guo Guang Athletic Scholarships were awarded.

Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the last two years or so the number of international sports events has decreased sharply, directly reducing Taiwan’s athletes’ chance to compete in international sports events, however, Taiwan’s athletes were still able to take advantage of the limited opportunities to compete and gave their all, recording the best ever results at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. To highlight the importance the government attaches to athletes and coaches and to show thanks and affirmation for their outstanding contribution and record-breaking results, this year the Guo Guang Athletic Medal and Sports Science Research Award Presentation Ceremony was held at Taipei Guesthouse for the first time. Thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for providing the venue and adding luster to the event.

In all, this year 47 athletes and coaches received the Guo Guang Athletic 1^st Class Gold Medal, including Tokyo Olympics “Goddess of Weightlifting” Kuo Hsing-chun, “Lin-Yang Pair” Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin who received a Grade 1 1^st class medal; female singles badminton player Tai Tzu-ying, male judoka Yang Yung-wei, gymnastic “Prince of the Pommel Horse” Lee Chih-kai, and members of the men’s archery team Tang Chih-chun, Wei Chun-heng and Deng Yu-cheng received a Grade 2 1^st Class medal; taekwondo athlete Lo Chia-ling, female boxer Huang Hsiao-wen, female karate athlete Wen Tzu-yun, female weightlifter Chen Wen-hui, male golfer Pan Cheng-tsung and table tennis mixed doubles pair Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching were awarded a Grade 3 1^st Class medal.

This year, 23 people received the Guoguang Sports 2nd Class Silver Medal, including “weightlifting fairy” Fang Wan-ling, Paris Olympics gold medal hope weightlifter Chen Po-jen, the men’s and women’s table tennis teams, gymnast Tang Chia-hung, shooters Wu Chia-ying and Tien Chia-chen, badminton player Chou Tien-cheng, boxer Chen Nien-chin, and judoka Lin Chen-hao. 17 athletes were awarded the Guo Guang Athletic 3rd Class Bronze Medal for their exploits in seven international competitions including Huang Yu-jen at the 24^th Asian Taekwondo Championships, with three receiving a Grade 1 3^rd class, nine receiving Grade 2 3rd class and five receiving Grade 3 3^rd class medals.

Another focus of the presentation ceremony was the Sports Science Research Award. This year, 19 outstanding sports science research works were selected, with three Excellent, five First-class and 11 Honorable Mention. Most of the works increase competitive power when practically applied. This year, Taiwan’s athletes did very well at the Tokyo Olympics and one reason was the involvement of sports science in athlete training that achieved clear improvement in performance. The Sports Administration will continue to promote sports science as an aid for sports training and will introduce the results of sports science research to the National Sports Training Center so that athletes are “faster, higher, stronger” and book their excellent performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics in advance.