Taiwan’s athlete’s continue to fight for gold at the Olympics despite a disappointing Tuesday in Paris for the delegation.
In tennis women’s doubles, Taiwan’s top player Hsieh Su-Wei (謝淑薇) and 20-year-old Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) automatically advanced when their opponents, Ukrainian’s Marta Kostyuk and Dayana Yastremska withdrew for reasons unknown. Taiwan’s other tennis duo Latisha Chan (詹詠然) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) lost their first match against last year’s gold medalists from the Czech Republic. This removes them from the competition, an especially unfortunate turn as this was Latisha’s final Olympics.
In swimming Eddie Wang Kuan-hung (王冠閎) known as “Taiwan’s Butterfly King”, also failed to advance to the finals. However, he did improve over his Tokyo Olympic placement of 13, and still ranked highest among the competing Asian countries.
In the men’s archery competition, though all Taiwan’s athletes did well, they were unable to match the skill of their opponents, and were stopped from advancing. Taiwan’s Tai Yu-hsuan (戴宇軒) lost by a margin of two, to France’s Thomas Chirault. Meanwhile Lin Zih-siang (林子翔) faced South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin, a three time men’s gold medalist, but lost 0-6. Finally, Tang Chih-chun (湯智鈞) lost to Turkey’s Mete Gazoz, a 2020 Tokyo gold medalist.
While the day was filled with more losses than wins, Taiwan’s chances aren’t over yet. With high prospects in table tennis, and the upcoming women’s doubles there is still a chance for Taiwan to take home a medal.