Plane Carrying Badminton Athletes Gets Military Escort 東奧羽球國手返台 4幻象伴飛施放熱焰彈

Also sparking debate is President Tsai's decision to have four Mirage fighter jets to escort the flight that transported Chinese Taipei's badminton delegation back to Taiwan. The athletes shared this rare and honorable sight on their social media.

This China Airlines flight was responsible for transporting Chinese Taipei's Olympic badminton delegation back to Taiwan. The Ministry of National Defense arranged for four Mirage 2000 fighter jets to escort the flight after it entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone on the orders of President Tsai Ing-wen. The military jets released flares to welcome back the athletes.

The four Mirage 2000 fighter jets departed from Hsinchu Air Base to celebrate the return of the athletes. Badminton player Tai Tzu-ying shared her excitement over the military escort via an Instagram Story. Badminton gold medalist Lee Yang shared images taken from the cabin of the plane of everyone using their phones to record this moment. This was not the first time that returning athletes received a military escort. The last time was in 2018 when F-16 planes were used to celebrate athletes returning from the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta with 17 gold medals, 19 silver medals, and 31 bronze medals.

While the athletes were waiting to clear customs, badminton players Wang Tzu-wei and Chou Tien-chen, who made the round of 16 and quarterfinals, respectively, shared their thoughts on their experience.

Wang Tzu-wei, Chinese Taipei Olympic Badminton Player："The experience from the match that I lost taught me many things, such as what adjustments I need to make the next time I face (Viktor Axelsen)."

Chou Tien-chen, Chinese Taipei Olympic Badminton Player："Everyone on the badminton team performed really well this time, especially Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin. I think they made history."

Tai declined to speak to the media, leaving the spotlight for the gold-medal winning pair of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin. Their gold medal in the men's doubles competition was Chinese Taipei's first-ever gold medal in badminton.

Wang Chi-lin, Chinese Taipei Olympic Badminton Gold Medalist："(Right before the medal ceremony, the two of you looked at each other. What were you thinking during that moment?) I was looking at Lee Yang to confirm with him about what they just told us, that they would call our names, and then we would stop onto the podium. So I looked at him in that way. Even when he stepped up, I couldn't believe this was happening."

Lee Yang, Chinese Taipei Olympic Badminton Gold Medalist："I asked Chi-lin, are the two of us really the winners? I couldn't believe it, that it was the two of us who achieved this thing. Before we departed, we hadn't thought about this, we only wanted to play well and be tactically sound in every match."

Lee also said that regardless of the results, athletes need to return to the essence of athletes and take every training session and competition seriously.

華航客機上載著東京奧運羽球代表隊成員返台，在總統蔡英文的指示下，國防部安排四架幻象2000戰機在客機飛入我國航空識別區後，隨即伴飛迎接，還特別在空中施放熱焰彈。

四架幻象2000從新竹空軍基地出發，慶祝國手載譽歸國。戴資穎也在自己的IG限時動態分享，直呼太帥了吧！李洋也拍下機艙內，大家紛紛拿出手機錄影紀念的有趣畫面，而戰機伴飛運動國手回國，並不是第一次，2018年雅加達亞運時，我國拿下17金、19銀和31銅佳績，也曾有F-16戰機升空迎接。

選手們等待出關時，由止步16強的選手王子維和止步8強的周天成，在桃園機場先後分享賽後感言。

東奧羽球國手 王子維表示：「但從(落敗)那場球的經驗來講，我自己也有學到滿多的東西，像是下一次遇到他(Viktor Axelsen)的時候，可能要做哪一些的變化。」

東奧羽球國手 周天成表示：「這次羽球隊，大家的表現都非常好，然後特別是李洋、王齊麟，我覺得他們就創造一個歷史。」

在應援團熱情擁戴下，世界羽球球后戴資穎面露靦腆，但不願發言隨即離去，將舞台焦點留給搶下台灣史上首面羽球奧運金牌的男雙選手李洋、王齊麟。

東奧羽球雙打金牌得主 王齊麟表示：「（你們在踏上頒獎台之前，深情對望過，當時在想什麼？) 我在看李洋，跟他確認說，他剛剛是不是跟我們講說，我們要喊到我們名字以後，才上去？所以我就這樣看他，就是看他。站上去的時候，其實還是有點不太可思議吧！」

東奧羽球雙打金牌得主 李洋表示：「跟齊麟講說，真的是我們兩個嗎？然後也是覺得很不可思議吧！是我們兩個做到這件事情，然後因為在出發前，我們也沒有那麼，想到是我們，我們就只是想說，把內容做好，然後把每一場的戰術打好。」

從沒被外界看好，到一路殺進金牌戰，李洋強調，不論成績如何，都應該回歸運動員本質，認真看待每一次的訓練、比賽。