Taiwan's sporting stars honored with national awards

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) Taiwan's government on Friday presented Guo-guang Athletic Medals to the country's athletes for their achievements at international level in 2024.

At the 2024 Guo-guang Athletic Medals and Sports Sciences Research Award Ceremony, 331 athletes and 12 coaches received athletic medals and a total of NT$464.7 million (US$14.34 million) in cash prizes.

In addition, 23 sports science researches were honored with four excellence awards, five superior awards and 14 honorable mentions.

In attendance at the annual ceremony for the first time were Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋), winners of the men's badminton doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Wang told the press he was very happy to attend the event and see so many of Taiwan's heroes gathered in one place.

Lee, meanwhile, said that he would try to use his influence as an athlete to heighten everyone's love for sports and help more young athletes to receive support and resources.

The Guo-guang Athletic Medals are ranked by a total of three grades and nine levels, with winners of an Olympic gold receiving the first grade first level medal and a cash prize of NT$20 million.

When asked about the prize money, Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷), the gold medalist in women's boxing at the Paris Games, said she had many things she wanted to buy but would resist the urge.

Despite missing the season-ending World Boxing Cup amid an eligibility dispute, Lin said she was glad to see her teammate Huang Hsiao-wen (黃筱雯) clinch gold at the tournament.

Badminton ace Chou Tien-chen (周天成) and veteran baseball player Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇), meanwhile, reflected on being professional athletes at the relatively advanced age of 34.

Chou, who made it into the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics and won two top-level tournaments in 2024, said it was "not easy to maintain" a peak state at his and Chen's age.

"Chen and I keep encouraging each other, and I hope we can walk into the stadium together at the Los Angeles Games [in 2028]," Chou said.

Chen replied that he "really admired Chou's efforts" to keep competing at the top of his sport.

However, Chen said he thought his chances of making it to Los Angeles at the age of 38 were slim.

Chen was the oldest member of Taiwan's team at the World Baseball and Softball Confederation Premier12 championship this year.

Pitching from the bullpen in six games, he gave up only one hit and no runs while striking out seven batters across 5.2 innings.

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), who presented the awards to the athletes, said in his speech that he was "the luckiest man in the country to be able to come face to face with so many of Taiwan's excellent athletes."