Team Taiwan hauls in 17 gold medals at Asian Games, most in 20 years

台灣隊在亞運會上奪17金，20年來最多的一次

Team Taiwan records highest gold medal haul in 20 years at Asian Games


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Team Taiwan hauled in 17 gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games, the most in 20 years and the second most ever.

By the close of the 2018 Asian Games yesterday (Sept. 2), Taiwan's final medal tally stood at 17 gold, 19 silver and 31 bronze, giving the country a seventh-place finish on the medal table. The 17 gold medals were the most earned by Taiwan since the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, when the team won 19 gold medals.

This year's team made great achievements in gymnastics, badminton and archery. In track and field, "Taiwan's fastest man" Yang Chun-han (楊俊瀚) captured the silver in the men's 200-meter dash, and barely missed out on gold by one thousandth of a second.

Yang's silver in the men's 200-meter dash marks the first medal in the event in the history of Taiwan's team.

Taiwanese athletes who win medals international events are eligible for cash prizes from the Guo Guang Athletic Medals and Scholarships (國光體育獎章及獎助學金頒發辦法), including NT$3 million (US$97,000) for a gold medal, NT$1.5 for a silver medal and NT$900,000 for a bronze medal. However, for athletes who win in track and field, swimming and gymnastics, the prize money is increased by 50 percent, thus a gold medal in track and field results in a NT$4.5 million cash award.

Therefore, this year's Asian Game delegation will accumulate up to NT$358.8 million in bonuses, plus NT$18.9 in coach bonuses, for a total of NT$377 million.

The team which earned the most money was the dragon boat team, which won two golds and one silver. Because team has 16 members, they will take home NT$120 million in prize money.

Including bonuses for the coaches, that amounts to NT$122 million, about a third of all winnings by Taiwan's team.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted the following tweet yesterday congratulating Team Taiwan on its impressive showing at this year's Asian Games.

Congratulations to Team #Taiwan on a stellar showing at the #AsianGames2018 in #Indonesia. The gold medal haul of 17 is the nation's best performance in 20 years & 2nd best of all time at the games. Sincere thanks to the athletes, coaches & officials for making us so very proud. https://t.co/iSwcn4Ts9u
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan)