Sport Archive

  • Time to stop ducking uncomfortable truths

    Time to stop ducking uncomfortable truths

    When it comes to social etiquette, Taiwanese society resembles the United Kingdom’s House of Commons in one key aspect: directly calling someone a liar is taboo. Since its introduction by a young Winston Churchill in 1906, the preferred euphemism for an untruth at Westminster has been “terminological inexactitude.” Churchill, who used the phrase to weasel […]

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  • Keeping the love from Russia alive

    Keeping the love from Russia alive

    “Look” exclaims Kamil. “No hooligans!” He’s just picked us up outside our hostel close to the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod. With insane mark-ups being slapped on taxi fares for the duration of the World Cup, Yandex.taxi – Russia’s ride-hailing app of choice – is a godsend. They generally arrive in minutes and the drivers are […]

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  • Taiwan’s Female Athletes Still Fighting Institutionalized Sexism

    Taiwan’s Female Athletes Still Fighting Institutionalized Sexism

    Anyone who kept half an eye on local media coverage of the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade that closed on Aug. 31 will likely have noticed the sometimes cringe-worthy manner in which Taiwan’s female athletes were “feted” for their achievements. It didn’t take long for this brand of patronizing sexism to rear its head at the […]

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  • Taiwan’s stellar Universiade needs qualification

    Taiwan’s stellar Universiade needs qualification

      Update: Massive apologies to the subs at Taipei Times. I sent the wrong draft. This one’s completely my fault! Chowing down on a stodgy piece of humble pie as I type this! Sorry, guys. Not for the first time, Taipei Times used the first draft of a piece I sent them. It’s kind of […]

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  • The Ugly Side of Taiwan’s Olympics

    The Ugly Side of Taiwan’s Olympics

    This is the original of my op-ed piece from today’s Taipei Times. I’ve also added stuff that I would have included but, based on experience, guessed wouldn’t make the cut for style and length reasons: Taiwan was overjoyed by weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching’s (許淑淨) gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro last Monday. […]

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  • Floyd Mayweather doesn’t frustrate me; boxing’s relentless greed does

    Floyd Mayweather doesn’t frustrate me; boxing’s relentless greed does

    When the decision was announced, the silence from the overwhelmingly Filipino crowd at the Farm House bar in Taipei’s “Combat Zone” said it all. There was some half-hearted, almost apologetic booing and, in a few cases, some wilful delusion. “It’s bullshit,” said a Pinoy named Dave, shaking his head. “He just ran away all the […]

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  • From warzones to wailao (外勞): Taiwan’s qualifiers for World Cup 2018

    From warzones to wailao (外勞): Taiwan’s qualifiers for World Cup 2018

    While there’s next to no chance of Taiwan emerging from the second round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they could have done a fair bit worse in terms of the teams they drew in Group F. True, with a world ranking of joint-179th (out of 209 nations) with Cambodia, they are […]

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  • Salt, Stodge and Sarapatel: Getting Stuffed in Salvador de Bahia

    Salt, Stodge and Sarapatel: Getting Stuffed in Salvador de Bahia

    Never one to miss a trick, my son Herbie was immensely tickled at the name of the first airline we used in Latin American: LAN. “Felix would love it,” he said of his little brother who, much to my regret, I could not afford to bring along on this six-week trip. Herbie was referring to […]

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  • Cariocans regain their swagger

    Cariocans regain their swagger

    Taipei Times ran a short feature I wrote on the atmosphere in Rio for Brazil’s World Cup quarterfinal with Colombia ahead of the semifinal clash with Germany on Wednesday. They made a complete balls up of the intro. so it now basically makes no sense. They also changed all kinds of things for no apparent […]

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  • Barra Beach Beats

    Barra Beach Beats

    This is our fourth and final Day in Salvador da Bahia, the old capital of Brazil. I’m glad we made the choice to stay in the historic centre of Pelourinho. For all its seediness and decrepitude, it gives the traveller a taste a the real Brazil. It’s touristy but edgy, broken but charming, dirty and […]

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