Flight Delayed Due To COVID-19, Taiwan Team Can't Participate In Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

Gladeresik opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics (Twitter @beijing2022)

JAKARTA - Taiwan's national sports body announced that its contingent will not be able to participate in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics next month due to technical reasons such as flight delays, very strict COVID-19 regulations, and too early a schedule.

The agency said the Taiwanese team consisted of only 15 people, including four athletes and a coach, and no bureaucratic officials would accompany the contingent.

"According to the pandemic prevention policy at the event, flight schedules have been adjusted and postponed, and not all can arrive in Beijing during the opening ceremony on February 4," one Taiwanese bureaucrat, who asked not to be named, told Reuters on Monday, quoted by Antara.

Taiwan has no winter sports tradition and has never won a medal at the winter Olympics. The number of athletes they sent was the same as the last winter Olympics in 2018.

Due to different flight schedules, athletes need to overcome jetlag and need additional time to get used to the race arena.

"Based on the high standards in efforts to protect athletes from the pandemic, our delegation will not participate in the opening ceremony," said the source.

However, Taiwan's absence from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics is also seen as related to the political element of the dispute between China and Taiwan, a senior official in Taiwan's government told Reuters.

Taiwan, which China claims as its province, is concerned that its status at the opening ceremony could be lowered to the same level as Hong Kong, which is China's autonomous region.

The Beijing Olympics come at a time of heightened tension between the two regions, including repeated Chinese military activity near the island of Taiwan.

China's intervention in the world of sports can also be seen from the use of the name China Taipei, which was assigned to the Taiwan contingent, which stemmed from the insistence of the One China policy.