Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s sports promotion game plan is scoring goals in the global glory and healthy lifestyle stakes.

On Sept. 3, the final group of athletes flying back from the Asian Games in Indonesia received an honor typically reserved for heads of state. As their plane entered Taiwan air space, two F-16s pulled alongside. With the sportspeople crowding the windows, the fighter jets released decoy flares, illuminating the night sky and wowing the returning heroes.

The air force escort was part of a series of activities to celebrate the athletes’ achievements at the quadrennial event. Taiwan won 17 gold, 19 silver and 31 bronze medals at the games, marking its best result for two decades and placing it seventh among the 45 participating countries and territories. Victories came in a broad range of disciplines including archery, badminton, gymnastics, shooting, taekwondo and weightlifting.

Following their return, members of Team Taiwan met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Office of the President in Taipei City. She praised their skill and determination while acknowledging the vital contributions of the delegation’s chef, coaches, dietician, medical professionals, physiotherapists and other support staff. The medal tally demonstrates Taiwan can punch above its weight in international competitions, Tsai said, adding that the Sports Administration (SA) is working to ensure the national team receives everything it needs to outperform at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Culture of Excellence

The country’s results at the Asian Games came on the back of its stellar performance at the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade. Taiwan earned a national record-breaking 26 golds, 34 silvers and 30 bronzes to rank third overall at the event, also known as the World University Games.

These successes in global tournaments follow significant government funding increases for elite training programs. They also represent early outcomes from a broader national project to reshape public attitudes toward fitness and foster a culture of athletic excellence.

Taiwan’s sports budget is expected to total about NT$13.3 billion (US$431.8 million) this year, up 38.5 percent from 2016. This money is helping strengthen the leisure and athletic environments for all residents, from world-class competitors to senior citizens, and ingrain healthy behaviors throughout society.

SA Director-General Kao Chin-hsung (高俊雄‬) said the work of promoting participation and achievement in athletic disciplines must begin at the grassroots level. National sports development strategy needs to encompass everything from elementary school coaching and community resources to top-quality training facilities, he added.

In 2013, the government launched a major restructuring of its policymaking framework with a view to implementing this holistic model. Formerly an independent Cabinet agency responsible primarily for managing the national teams, the SA was placed under the Ministry of Education (MOE) and also tasked with administering physical education curriculums and coaching at elementary and high schools nationwide. In addition to encouraging healthy lifestyles among schoolchildren, this move was designed to bolster the identification and cultivation of young talent.

Under the reorganization, the SA was also charged with supervising training programs for student-athletes at universities and colleges. Like oversight of PE classes, this was previously the responsibility of the MOE rather than the country’s sports authority. These administrative changes have significantly enhanced Taiwan’s international competitiveness, as “about 80 percent of our athletes at Asian and Olympic games are enrolled in tertiary education institutions,” Kao said.

Public Engagement

According to Kao, the core principle of the government’s approach is “sports for all.” Also the title of an SA division responsible for ensuring every resident enjoys fair access to activities and facilities, this strategy aims to “foster a thriving, multifaceted sporting ecosystem that resonates with the public and boosts the national economy,” he said.

Part of this effort involves spotlighting Taiwan’s suitability for a wide range of disciplines and tournaments. Starting this year, the SA is cooperating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and local governments on annual promotional campaigns to showcase about 10 major competitions staged in the country.

The inaugural edition for 2019 is expected to feature top-tier contests such as the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship and Tour de Taiwan. Also under consideration are lesser-known events like the 100-kilometer Taiwania Ultra Trail through Qilan Forest Recreation Area in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County, as well as the Sun Moon Lake triathlon in the central county of Nantou. “Highlighting local competitions will deliver economic benefits in areas spanning broadcasting rights and tourism and help foster national pride in Taiwan’s diverse sporting environment,” Kao said, adding that it is hoped the measure will also inspire people of all ages to get involved in athletic activities.

Going hand in hand with this effort to bolster public interest in sport is a campaign to provide widespread access to affordable facilities. In recent decades, the SA has worked with local governments across Taiwan on the development of modern, well-equipped community gymnasiums. Since 2003, a large-scale multidisciplinary sports center has been built in each of Taipei’s 12 districts. The quality of these sites was a major factor in the metropolis being shortlisted for the 2018 World Capital of Sport by Brussels-based European Capitals and Cities of Sport Federation, with the metropolis ultimately losing out to Abu Dhabi. Another 24 civic sports centers have been established in major population hubs around the nation, including 12 in New Taipei City, while a further dozen are under construction.

Exercise Trends

Statistics on physical activity indicate that the government’s sports for all game plan is having the desired effect. Annual SA surveys show the proportion of people over the age of 13 performing 30 minutes or more of exercise at least three times per week reached a high of 33.5 percent in 2018, up from 15.5 percent when the study was first conducted in 2005.

Spurred by increased public sector spending and societal trends toward exercise, private investment has poured into Taiwan’s fitness industry. Figures from the Fiscal Information Agency under the Ministry of Finance reveal that the number of privately owned gyms rose to 369 in 2017 from 149 in 2013, while sector revenues increased by about 160 percent to NT$7.87 billion (US$255.5 million) over the same period.

According to Scott Liu (劉政煒), vice president of the Taipei-based Health and Exercise Association (HEA), Taiwan has witnessed a major shift in attitudes toward fitness over the past decade. “Young adults today are increasingly focused on maintaining a healthy weight,” he said. “Taiwan is also an aging society and more and more people recognize that physical activity is essential for a good quality of life in retirement.”

Established in 2002, the HEA is Taiwan’s largest training organization for fitness professionals. More than 5,000 people completed its basic instructor certification last year amid rising demand for qualified staff. Trainers are needed for the many newly built public and private sector gyms as well as a variety of local government-sponsored outreach programs.

A prominent example of the latter is Exercise for Health in New Taipei. Launched in 2016, the project dispatches instructors to community centers in each of the city’s 29 districts. The goal is to provide services for seniors, residents with reduced mobility and those who live some distance from the new civic sports complexes.

As part of the program, the city government signed a two-year cooperation agreement with Exercise is Medicine (EIM), an initiative launched by the American Medical Association and the American College of Sports Medicine in 2007 to integrate physical activity into medical treatment plans. Under the pact, 385 health care and sports professionals in New Taipei will receive EIM training on delivering exercise classes for the elderly and physically inactive.

Professional Development

Hung Tsung-min (洪聰敏), a sports psychologist and professor in the Department of Physical Education at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, said that accessibility to coaching and fitness services is a crucial component of national health and sports policy. Community facilities, whether large-scale urban complexes or rural community centers, provide a platform for instructors to deliver classes and the public to meet physical activity requirements, “so professionals get income and people gain health,” he added.

With school classrooms falling idle due to Taiwan’s consistently low birthrate, Hung recommended converting unused spaces into community gyms. Exercise is a major pillar of preventative medicine and “building more sports centers is far cheaper than building more hospitals,” he said.

According to Hung, the influx of public and private investment has raised standards across Taiwan’s coaching and fitness sectors. This is also evident at the SA-overseen National Sports Training Center in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, the country’s foremost hub for athletes preparing for the Olympics, Asian Games and other top-level international events. In the past, sports scientists like Hung worked part-time at the facility, but today these roles are filled by full-time staffers.

Greater funding for qualified coaches and support staff is boosting athletic performance and perhaps more significantly, encouraging young people to pursue careers in related fields. As professionalism rises throughout the sector, the latest training concepts are filtering down to school PE classes and civic sports centers. “This emerging base of fitness and sports science specialists will further enhance Taiwan’s performance in international competitions and strengthen national health and well-being,” Hung said.

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