Taiwan Today

High school and university sports programs are helping Taiwan athletes make the grade in international competitions.

Since appearing in the hit 2004 documentary “Jump! Boys” about his elementary school gymnastics team in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County, Lee Chih-kai (李智凱) has seemed destined for sporting greatness. Last August in Indonesia, the pommel horse specialist wrote his name into the history books by winning the nation’s first-ever gymnastics gold at the Asian Games.

In the intervening years, Lee received substantial support in maximizing his talents through the education system. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at National Taiwan Sport University (NTSU) in the northern city of Taoyuan, the country’s foremost tertiary institution for cultivating elite competitors and promoting related research.

The 22-year-old gymnast is currently a master’s student in the College of Athletics. Most of Lee’s coursework involves honing his skills at the school’s first-rate training facilities. He has also gained a solid grounding in subjects like biomechanics, nutrition and psychology. Undergraduate and postgraduate sports programs such as this at universities across Taiwan are designed to bolster athletes’ chances of victory, while providing them with a host of professional possibilities after the end of their competitive careers.

Of the 67 medals won by the national team at last year’s Asian Games, 15 went to enrollees at NTSU. Hwang Dong-jhy (黃東治), vice president of the university, said that this spotlights the school’s success in nurturing student-athletes as well as the role it can play in delivering glory for the nation. “Sport is one of the most effective ways of raising the country’s profile on the global stage,” he added.

Collegiate Contests

The country’s system for nurturing student-athletes at the tertiary level dates to the establishment of the National University Sports Federation in 1957. Originally comprising 12 schools, the body was founded to boost local competition by arranging intercollegiate tournaments. In 1987, it became the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF) on joining the Switzerland-headquartered International University Sports Federation, the governing body of the biennial Summer Universiade.

The same year, Taiwan entered the global competition, also known as the World University Games, for the first time at the 14th edition in Zagreb, then Yugoslavia. CTUSF was one of the organizers of the 29th and most recent Universiade in Taipei, the largest sporting event ever staged in Taiwan.

Today, the federation comprises 163 educational institutions nationwide. In addition to NTSU, members with specialized departments for elite athletes include National Taiwan University of Sport in the central city of Taichung and the University of Taipei, which merged with Taipei Physical Education College in 2013.

The three institutions also spearhead local efforts to advance sports science research and have earned international reputations in related fields. From May 30 to June 2, 2017, NTSU staged the annual world congress for the International Sociology of Sport Association. Themed Reimagining Democracies and Sport, the seminar was attended by 214 academics from 27 countries and territories.

Strong Foundations

The majority of enrollees in Taiwan’s sports universities first learn their craft through specialized training setups at elementary and high schools. These government-funded programs are held outside of regular class hours and focus on a specific discipline, with badminton, baseball, tennis and volleyball among the most popular. According to Wang Han-chung (王漢忠‬), director of the School Physical Education Division at the Sports Administration (SA) under the Ministry of Education, the courses provide top-class training environments for gifted youngsters by tapping local resources such as coaching expertise at nearby universities.

In 2018, more than 5,300 students were enrolled in sports programs at 145 senior high schools nationwide, SA statistics showed. The same year, almost 5,000 freshmen used athletic accomplishments to gain admission to tertiary institutions.

Sporting results became a pathway to university in Taiwan during the 1990s as part of a wider restructuring of the college entrance system. The reforms replaced a single exam with a multichannel process in which various extracurricular skills are taken into account. The current arrangement allows students to use results in major domestic competitions like the annual National High School Athletic Games, as well as international events including the Asian Games, Universiade and Youth Olympic Games, to apply to sports-related tertiary programs up to postgraduate level.

Over the past few years, a number of institutions have also begun accepting athletic achievements for admission to nonsporting courses. In 2018, the Taiwan Comprehensive University System, comprising national Chung Hsing, Chung Cheng, Cheng Kung and Sun Yat-sen universities in central and southern Taiwan, reserved a number of places in departments spanning business management, electrical engineering, economics and languages for applicants from high school sports programs. To qualify, candidates had to reach a basic level on the General Scholastic Ability Test, Taiwan’s primary college entrance examination, and demonstrate high-level abilities in certain disciplines such as badminton, basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

Wang said that since the college entrance reforms, more parents are willing to let their children pursue sporting interests in elementary and high school. “There’s been a paradigm shift away from using a single standard to evaluate all young people,” he said. “These sports courses build teamwork and leadership skills and give kids a broader outlook on life.”

Soccer Goals

A major SA priority is increasing the number of soccer programs at all educational levels. “This sport requires excellent hand-eye-foot coordination, so it’s beneficial to children’s neurological development, regardless of whether they learn to play it at a high level,” Wang said. “Boosting participation rates is also the first step in achieving Taiwan’s long-term goal of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup.”

The SA is working toward appointing 500 new coaches in all fields by the end of this year, of which about 10 percent will specialize in soccer. These hires will be employed at institutions nationwide ranging from elementary schools to the National Sports Training Center in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, the country’s foremost hub for the selection and development of elite athletes. Many of the posts are expected to be filled by former national team members. “Our goal is to strengthen the coaching infrastructure right down to the grassroots level,” Wang said. “This process will provide retired athletes with rewarding professions and allow them to pass on their skills and experiences to the younger generation.”

According to NTSU Vice President Hwang, the expansion of sporting programs will also help deepen the social inclusion of indigenous peoples. Athletes from aboriginal backgrounds typically have a strong presence on the national team, with Taiwan’s delegation to the most recent Asian Games no exception. Indigenous peoples account for 2.3 percent of the country’s population of 23.5 million, but comprised 7 percent of the 588-member contingent to the event in Indonesia, according to the SA. “People tend to attribute this to genetics,” he said. “But in reality, a lack of educational and employment opportunities in tribal communities means youngsters are more likely to use sport as an outlet for their talents and ambitions.”

To help boost the number of instructors of indigenous descent, NTSU is reserving 20 undergraduate places in its College of Physical Education during the 2019 academic year for such applicants. “Since many of Taiwan’s elite athletes come from aboriginal backgrounds, it only makes sense to strengthen their involvement in the nation’s coaching and sports policymaking setups,” Hwang said.

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw