President Ma Ying-jeou traveled on the morning of November 4 to the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung's Zuoying District to present a flag and give a pep talk to the Taiwan athletes scheduled to compete in the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou on mainland China. The president called on the athletes to do their utmost in the competition and make the best of their long training, thereby helping to win glory for the nation.
In his remarks, the president said that the Chinese Taipei athletes will soon depart for Guangzhou to attend the games, which will be held from November 12 to November 27. Taiwan's contingent consists of 569 members, and will compete in 32 sports against over 10,000 competitors from 45 other Asian nations, he said.
The president said that the athletes were clearly very dedicated to their sport and confident in their abilities. Besides urging them to perform to their full potential, show good sportsmanship, and win glory for the nation, the president also expressed his appreciation to the Executive Yuan's Sports Affairs Council, the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, the National Sports Training Center, and various sports federations for the hard work they have done in planning and carrying out training programs for the athletes.
The president said that the Taiwan Sports Lottery Fund was formally launched on July 1 of this year, and will be used to help fund the training of athletes, improvements to the environment for athletics, incentives for development of the sports industry, and efforts to attract international competitions to Taiwan. In addition, the Sports Affairs Council on August 20 completed drafting of Guidelines for the Cultivation of Persons with Demonstrated and Potential Athletic Excellence to provide star athletes greater opportunities for training at home and abroad. The president noted that any athletes winning gold medals at this year's Asian Games will receive contracts to work in coaching or related positions for five years. He said he hopes each athlete will bring his or her potential into full play.
President Ma noted that the government starting last year began to renovate facilitates at the National Sports Training Center. Meanwhile, the National Sports Park Establishment and Personnel Development Plan formulated by the Sports Affairs Council has been approved by the Executive Yuan. Renovations and training at the training center will be carried out simultaneously, and athletes will eventually have a top notch facility where they can train and bring their performance up to international standards, he remarked.