Taiwanese speed skater Huang Yu-ting (???), who sparked controversy prior to the Beijing Winter Olympics, was the first of four Taiwanese athletes to compete in the games when she finished 26th in the women's 1,500-meter race on Monday.
The 33-year-old Huang registered a time of 2:00.78 to finish ahead of four other athletes in the 30-skater race. She equaled her 26th-place finish in the same race at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, when she fell and posted a time of 2:18.84.
Ireen Wust of the Netherlands won the gold in an Olympic record time of 1:53.28, ahead of Miho Takagi of Japan and Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands.
Huang and skier Ho Ping-jui (???) were the two flagbearers for Taiwan, competing in the Olympics under the name Chinese Taipei as has been the case since 1984, during the Winter Games opening ceremony.
Prior to the start of the games, she came under heavy attack online from Taiwanese for wearing a Chinese national team skinsuit in a training video she posted on Jan. 23.
The video was not noticed by netizens until Feb. 3, when it went viral and drew angry retorts, forcing Huang to take it down.
The skater has since apologized, and while the Sports Administration chided Huang for not showing enough awareness of the sensitivity of cross-Taiwan Strait politics, it did not punish or reprimand her for the video and allowed her to compete for Taiwan as planned.
After Monday's race, Huang will compete in the women's 500m and 1,000m races on Feb. 13 and 17, respectively.
Meanwhile, Ho and skier Lee Wen-yi (???) will appear in the men's and women's slalom, respectively. Lin Sin-rong (???) was to start her luge women's singles competition Monday night.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel