Tsai Encourages Athletes to Target on 2020 Olympics|亞運奪金大幅進步 蔡總統接見代表團

President Tsai Ing-wen met with the athletes of Chinese Taipei team as they returned to Taiwan. During her speech, Tsai said that the team's performance has proved that Taiwan is a legitimate competitor in the world sports arena. Tsai promised to double the sports-related budget and encouraged the athletes to continue to work hard for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.


As each competition category is announced, President Tsai Ing-wen meets and cheers for the Taiwanese athletes returning from the 2018 Asian Games. She said she is very proud to see the athletes winning the second most gold medals in Taiwan's Asian Game history. Tsai also encouraged the athletes to set their eyes on the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Tsai said that the government is taking sports seriously and will aim to double the budget for sports-related activities and infrastructure in the future.

Now we need to start preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Our administration will provide even better logistic support for the upcoming event. And we will continue to support all sports activities. We will race towards our goal, which is to double the budget for sports-related activities and infrastructures.

While congratulating the athletes for their achievement, Tsai also handed them special flags with the phrase "Our Country is Great Because of You" printed on them. On the other hand, the chief representative of the team said that it was really difficult to win golds at international sporting events.

The (sports) minister and the department head were about to go nuts in hopes to win golds.

If we weren't brave enough, or strong enough, then we wouldn't be where we are today even with the best support and resources. The training process was really grueling, but our dream remains clear.

Team Chinese Taipei won 17 golds at the recently concluded Asian Games in Jakarta, 7 more than in the 2014 Asian Games, held in Incheon, South Korea. The 17 gold medals also puts Taiwan number 7 in the medal list. The returning athletes received warm welcome from people of all walks of life.