FEATURE/Decoding history: Taiwan at the Olympics, by the numbers

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff writer

Taiwan's participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sport, in which the name it has competed under since 1984 -- Chinese Taipei -- has drawn as much attention as its athletes.

But with the Games of 33rd Olympiad set to begin in Paris on July 26, the exploits of Taiwan's athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country's debut in Melbourne in 1956 also deserve a nod.

CNA has collated multiple numbers regarding the national Olympic team's past, present and immediate future.

Three legends

Many of Taiwan's 36 medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status -- Maysang Kalimud (楊傳廣, C.K. Yang) and Chi Cheng (紀政).

The only winners of medals before the "Chinese Taipei" era, Maysang Kalimud, who died in 2007, won a silver in the decathlon in Rome in 1960 when the Taiwan team competed under the name "Formosa" and Chi won a bronze in women's 80-meter hurdles in Mexico City in 1968 competing under the name "Taiwan."

They made the Olympics relevant in a country that had had little sporting success internationally up to that point.

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But do not forget Cho Seiken (or Chang Hsing-hsien, 張星賢), the first Taiwanese to compete in the Olympics. In 1932, when Taiwan was still under Japanese colonization, he made history in Los Angeles by representing Japan in the men's 400m hurdles and men's 4x400m relay events, though he did not medal.

16 appearances

Taiwan competed in five consecutive Summer Games from 1956 to 1972, but then was left out in 1976 and 1980 as politics came to the fore.

An agreement between the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in Taipei was inked in 1981 to end the impasse.

Taiwan's appearance in Paris will be 11th at the quadrennial sports jamboree as Chinese Taipei, bringing its total Summer Games appearances to 16.

Medals

Since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Taiwanese athletes have won seven golds, 10 silvers and 17 bronzes.

The team has won at least one medal in all editions except the Seoul Olympics in 1988, followed by only one bronze in 1984.

Taiwan also secured one silver each in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996.

Its first gold was won by Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) in Athens on Aug. 27, 2004, when she topped the women's flyweight division. Less than 20 minutes later, she was joined by Chu Mu-yen's (朱木炎) gold in the men's flyweight division.

The team's performance peaked at the 2020 Tokyo Games (held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic) with a total of 12 medals, consisting of two golds, four silvers and six bronzes.

As for individuals, the biggest achiever has been Taiwan's only two-time gold medalist Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨), who topped the women's 53-kilogram weightlifting division at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio games.

In addition to Hsu, four other Taiwanese athletes have medaled twice at the Olympics Games, the most in Team Taiwan's history.

Weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) and Chu both have won a gold and a bronze, while Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) and Chen Ching (陳靜) have notched a silver and a bronze in taekwondo and table tennis, respectively.

No Taiwanese athletes have ever won two or more medals in a single Olympic Games.

Sports

In the past 10 Olympics, Taiwanese athletes competed in an average of 14.2 sports per edition.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics was the only time they competed in fewer than 10 sports, with seven, while the 18 different sports in which they competed in Tokyo and Rio were the most.

Taiwan has won medals in 11 sports, with weightlifting and taekwondo contributing 19 medals alone.

Weightlifting leads with four golds, two silvers and four bronzes; taekwondo follows with two golds, one silver and six bronzes.

Since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Taiwan has consistently medaled in weightlifting except for the Athens Games in 2004, and in taekwondo in all but the Rio Games in 2016.

That success may not continue in Paris, however, as Taiwan will only send three weightlifters to France compared to seven to Tokyo, and Kuo, who won a gold medal three years ago, is struggling with injuries.

Also, Taiwan will be represented in Paris by only one taekwondo athlete, Tokyo bronze medalist Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎), compared to four three years ago.

Taiwan has also earned multiple medals in archery (4), table tennis (3) and badminton (2), while earning one each in judo, golf, artistic gymnastics, boxing, karate and baseball.

Age and experience

Taiwanese athletes heading to Paris average 27.3 years old, with men at 26.2 and women at 28.1.

The youngest athletes debuting in Paris are male paddler Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿), female shooter Li Tsai-chi (李彩綺) and swimmer Angie Coe (Han An-chi, 韓安齊), all aged 19.

The oldest are 43-year-olds Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵) and markswoman Lin Yi-chun (林怡君).

Should Kao, Li or Coe win a medal in Paris, however, they would not be the youngest Taiwanese medalist ever. That honor goes to Wang Cheng-pang (王正邦), who was 17 when he won a silver medal in the men's archery team event in 2004.

If Chuang or Lin were to medal, however, they would shatter the record for oldest Taiwanese medal winner, currently held by table tennis player Chen Ching, who won a bronze in Sydney at the age of 32.

Chuang will become the first Taiwanese to participate in six consecutive Olympics when he competes in Paris, and four women will make their fourth consecutive appearance: Kuo, badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), shooter Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩) and paddler Chen Szu-yu (陳思羽).

The female athlete with the most Olympic appearances is Lin, participating in her fifth Olympics this year. She has competed in every Olympics since the Sydney Games in 2000, except for the 2008 and 2020 games in Beijing and Tokyo.

Gender

The Taiwan team in Paris comprises 26 men and 34 women, marking the fourth straight edition where women outnumber men.

Except in Beijing and Athens where Taiwan competed in the men's sport of baseball, since 2000 female athletes have consistently outnumbered males on Taiwan's Olympic teams.

This numerical advantage has translated to five golds, three silvers and 11 bronzes won by women compared to two golds, five silvers and four bronzes by men over the past two decades.

This trend is particularly prevalent in weightlifting, where all nine medals since 2000 have been won by Taiwanese women.

In the Chinese Taipei era, Tsai Wen-yi (蔡溫義) won a bronze in the men's 60 kg weight class to give Taiwan's first weightlifting medal, but the inclusion of women's weightlifting events starting in 2000 has seen the country's female athletes win one gold in each of four consecutive games from 2008 to 2021.

Reflecting a global trend, the Paris Olympics is celebrating full gender parity, allocating equal quota places for women and men in the multi-sport event.

This 50-percent female athlete participation is a step up from 47.8 percent in Tokyo and none in 1896 in Athens when the modern Olympic Games were first held, according to Olympic data.

In a first, the women's marathon will conclude the Olympic program on Aug. 11, highlighting this historic shift.

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