Sports in Taiwan

Yani Tseng with the 2011 Women's British Open trophy

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Wei-Yin Chen of the Baltimore Orioles

Sports are a popular recreation activity in Taiwan. Some of the most common sports include basketball, baseball, football and softball. Martial arts such as t'ai chi ch'uan and taekwondo are also practiced by many people. International-known athletes include Yang Chuan-kwang, Chi Cheng, and Yani Tseng among others.

Baseball

The most popular spectator sport is baseball. It is commonly considered the national sport in Taiwan. Baseball was first introduced during Japanese rule. It is the most popular spectator sport in Taiwan. The professional baseball league is the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), and the main playoff competition is the Taiwan Series. Taiwan has been "exporting" baseball talents to Japan and United States over the past few decades, such as Tai-Yuan Kuo (Taigen Kaku) to the Seibu Lions, Chien-Ming Wang to the New York Yankees/Washington Nationals, and Wei-Yin Chen to the Baltimore Orioles. The Chinese Taipei baseball team is currently the seventh ranked baseball team in the world.

Due to political reasons and pressures from the People's Republic of China, the organisations or national teams from Taiwan have been competing as Chinese Taipei in international sporting events, such as the Olympic Games.

Basketball

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2008 Leisure Taiwan basketball match

Basketball is the most popular ball sport in Taiwan that people actually play. The men's and women's basketball leagues are the Super Basketball League (SBL) and the Women's Super Basketball League (WSBL), respectively. The Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team won the silver medal at the Asian Championship in 1960 and 1963 and bronze in 1973 and 1989. The Chinese Taipei women's national basketball team won the silver medal at the 1972 Asian Basketball Championship for Women. The team won bronze at the event in 1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1988, 1999 and 2005. Further, the women's team won silver at the 2006 Asian Games.

Football

Due to Japanese (long before the J. League made football popular in Japan) and American influence, football has not been as popular as baseball or basketball in Taiwan, although it has a history of success at the Asian level. Football is run by the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA), which in turn runs the national teams for men and women and several domestic competitions.

The top league of football, the Intercity Football League, is relatively semi-professional and dominated by two teams, Tatung F.C. from Taipei and Taipower F.C. from Kaohsiung. As an incentive, the Asian Football Confederation runs the AFC President's Cup continental club competition for countries where football is relatively undeveloped, and these two clubs often take turns representing Taiwan in it.

There are many amateur football clubs run by foreign expatriates within Taiwan, but they run their own amateur competitions. An example is 100 Pacers F.C. in Kaohsiung. At youth level, there are Highschool Football League, National Youth Cup, and football program in the National High School Games.

Rugby union

Main article: Rugby union in Taiwan

Rugby union has had some presence in Taiwan for most of the post war period. The national sevens team has been particularly successful.

Volleyball

Starting from 2004, Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association holds the Enterprise Volleyball League every year. It is a men's amateur volleyball league. In total 4 teams participated in the 2008 seasonhe Chinese Taipei women's national volleyball team is the women's national volleyball team of Republic of China (Taiwan). (See Chinese Taipei for team naming issue) Controlled by Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association, it represents the country in international competitions and friendly matchesfter 16 years since 1990, Chinese Taipei women's national volleyball team re-entered FIVB Women's World Championship in 2006. To everyone's surprise, the 23-ranked team gained their first-ever victory over the host Japan (7th) on the opening day, followed by defeated South Korea (8th), Poland (9th), Kenya (11th), and Costa Rica (33rd) in the first round. However, after a good start of five consecutive victories, the team could not continue their impressing form and eventually took the 12th placeIn December, the same squad attended the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar. Although the team lost to South Korea and China in the preliminary round, they later beat Kazakhstan and Thailand and won the bronze medal, the first ever medal in women's volleyball at Asian Games.[2]

Individual sports

Archery

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Archery in Taiwan

Taiwanese competitors regularly participate in archery tournaments, occasionally winning medals in major sport events. Taiwanese archery team is also one of the top teams in the worldSouth Korea’s archery queens assumed their traditional place at the top of the ranking round for the London Games on Friday, but the US pushed them close and may feel this is the year to end the Asian powerhouse’s Olympic dominance, while Taiwan was ranked thirdHours after South Korea’s men set individual and world records in the 72 arrow ranking round, Ki Bo-bae, Lee Sung-jin and Choi Hyeon-ju posted 1,993 points out of a possible 2,160Each arrow can score a maximum of 10 points for hitting the center of a target 70m away. Ki and Lee both shot 671, as did Taiwan’s Tan Ya-ting, while the US’ Khatuna Lorig shot 669 in fourth. The scores gave South Korea the top team ranking, followed by the US, Taiwan and Mexico.

Table Tennis

Many Taiwanese people play table tennis because it does not require a lot of strength and space. The competitions, however, are not watched by many, because the speed and complex technique is difficult for average audiences to follow. Chuang Chih-Yuan, Taiwan´s top star, who has been situated both close to and inside the top ten for over a decade, won the Men´s Doubles gold medal, the first ever in the 87-year history of table tennis in Taiwan, alongside the former Junior World Champion, Chen Chien-An. Chuang was absolutely overjoyed at their success: „This victory means a great deal to our nation. I sincerely hope that this will be a boost to table tennis in Taiwan”.

Cycling

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2007 Tour de Taiwan

2007 Tour de Taiwan (2007年國際自由車環台賽) was held in March 2007.

Golf

Golf was introduced during the Japanese colonial period, with the first golf club opening in 1919. In 1982, Chen Tze-chung became the first professional golfer from Taiwan to earn a PGA Tour card. After a period of decline, Golf has become increasingly popular in Taiwan. Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) was the 2008 LPGA Rookie of the Year. She is the youngest player to win five major golf championships —either men's majors or women's majors— and is currently ranked number 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings since February 2011.

Marathon

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2006 ING Taipei Marathon

Marathon races are held in many places in Taiwan each year. Many marathoners from all over the world participate in these races. In the 2007 Carrefour Taipei International Expressway Marathon, African runners dominated both men and women divisions.

Tennis

In recent years both male and female tennis players from Taiwan got solid results and rankings. Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) and Jimmy Wang (王宇佐) has been ranked Top 100 (Lu's highest rank is no. 33 in July 2010, and Wang's was 85 in March 2006). Both of them set records for Taiwanese tennis history in singles. As of the female, before the new generation that included Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然), Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) and Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇). Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) was the best tennis player in Taiwan. She was ranked No. 1 in 2014 (doubles).

Taekwondo

Taiwanese competitors regularly participate in Taekwondo tournaments from Asian Games to the Olympics. In 2004 Summer Olympics, Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) and Chu Mu-yen (朱木炎) won the first two Gold Medals for Taiwan.

See also

• List of stadiums in Taiwan
• List of sporting events in Taiwan

External links

• Sports Affairs Council, Executive Yuan
• Taiwan’s First Sport in its Second Century: Baseball in Taiwanese Culture (in English)
• High flying hoop dreams: A brief history of the development of basketball in Taiwan (in English)