🥇 🇰🇷 South Korea | Why is South Korea better than Taiwan in the Summer Olympics?

[Membrillo]

Olympic games have a strong geopolitical connection. USA vs USSR, West vs East Germany, North vs South Korea, USA vs China being the most obvious ones.

Taiwan does not have a chance to compete against China. It isn’t even allowed to compete as Taiwan. Plus all the cultural and financial reasons already exposed.

Caring about a given sport for two weeks every four years is not enough.

[CTaitung]

There’s a Netflix or Korean movie about those runners, as they ran for Japan or whatever, due to Japan’s control of all of Korea then.

[BigDave]

@Taiwan202077

Besides Taiwan is not that well developed in terms of sport venues

Are you joking? There are sports tracks everywhere. There are basketball courts everywhere. There are swimming pools everywhere.

[volv1992]

@HenHaoChi

In Taiwan you learn how to make a half-decent bowl of noodles, in a half-decent flat, then go out and drink half-flat beer, while jamming with your friends in a half-hearted jam band.

Sounds like a drastic promotion compared to my life.

Some days, I shower.

[BigDave]

@HenHaoChi

Taiwan has some of the best workers in SEA, and the worst managers.

If this culture translates to the sports world, I can see why things go wrong.

Hit the nail on the head

The coaches are shit. My kids have been involved in skating, running, dance etc and there is only one style of coaching in Taiwan.

Put in more time. Not train harder. Not practice technique. Just waste more and more time not really achieving anything. Each and every coach i have come across focuses mainly on the physical side. They get good results initially this way because kids improve fast so they keep going. Then they hit the wall of diminishing returns and they dont have the skill to fall back on.

[Andrew0409]

There’s more focus on sports accomplishments for children.

Rich families in Taiwan don’t value sports accomplishments for kids like Koreans. I would say it’s the poorer places in Taiwan like the south where baseball thrives with less money. Rich Koreans will pay a lot for their kids to be good at sports.

Sports is not just talent. It’s development and development takes time and often money these days.

[CTaitung]

Yep, look at South Koreans in LPGA. They’ve come on like barnbusters and now very commonplace to have a handful of them in top 20 of each tournament.

[Andrew0409]

They’re so good this guy got heat and suspended for predicting a Korean name named Lee would win. Everyone said he was racist.

Michelle Wie fires back after golf instructor makes controversial LPGA comments

Then a Korean name jeongeun Lee won that year

[Taiwan202077]

And what? Does Taiwan have any god basketball players or swimmers?

[OysterOmelet]

@bingobango

Korea obviously places academics higher than sports too, but they are HYPER COMPETITIVE regarding just about every facet of life. Combine that with (my opinion) one of the highest levels of patriotism in this region and plenty of funding from a government eager to boost their soft power projection…and you have what we have today.

Koreans also largely believe sports are a distraction.

For example, in baseball, the most popular sport in the former Japanese empire, there are 75 high schools with a baseball team in Korea, compared to 1,400 in Japan.

According to bushido, you’re not supposed to stay home and read books all day like you are in Confucianism.

[OysterOmelet]

@Andrew0409

There’s more focus on sports accomplishments for children.

Rich families in Taiwan don’t value sports accomplishments for kids like Koreans. I would say it’s the poorer places in Taiwan like the south where baseball thrives with less money. Rich Koreans will pay a lot for their kids to be good at sports.

Sports is not just talent. It’s development and development takes time and often money these days.

Little league teams in Taiwan are always strapped for funding. See it in the news every year, short on cash to travel.

[marasan]

@OysterOmelet

@Andrew0409

There’s more focus on sports accomplishments for children.

Rich families in Taiwan don’t value sports accomplishments for kids like Koreans. I would say it’s the poorer places in Taiwan like the south where baseball thrives with less money. Rich Koreans will pay a lot for their kids to be good at sports.

Sports is not just talent. It’s development and development takes time and often money these days.

Little league teams in Taiwan are always strapped for funding. See it in the news every year, short on cash to travel.

Yes, and then after elementary school, the money starts to disappear. I’ve seen this in the news too. My wife’s nephew recently got drafted to a pro baseball team in Taiwan. I should ask him about this the next time I see him.

[Quesito]

Taiwan started investing in sport in 2004. The infrastructure is still bad: no good competition, no good coaches, limited to schools.
Many Taiwaneses in the Olympics train overseas

[RickRooney]

Lol it makes sense. The test passing culture doesn’t translate to sports.

[BigDave]

You said that the reason Taiwan doesnt do well is because a lack of facilities.

I pointed out that Taiwan has sports facilities everywhere. So that isnt the reason.

What is confusing?

For the amount of people who play basketball, you would think they would produce some players that make it to the top.

[the_bear]

I’ve been involved in sports here for 35 years. The politics are terrible. In soccer they used to change coach every time they lost which is every game. And every new coach brought in his own players. So you’d have over 100 players in a calendar year. They also refused to play Olympic and WC qualifying games at home due to embarrassment which meant they’d fly to let’s say Jordan and play two games in Jordan.

Present day they have an English coach but no academy system no schools level structure. That’s all being done by private coaches and businesses such as MFA who have hundreds of kids on their books.

[Taiwan202077]

I did say „no sport venues apart from basketball courts”
Yes, I would expect so. That is the way you start your adventure with professional sport.

[Quesito]

@BigDave

What is confusing?

For the amount of people who play basketball, tou would think they would produce some players that make it to the top.

You need more than that, you need to make them play in teams and a league from a very young age, and it’s has to be accesible that every kid can go to a team and train properly with a coach, and play the league every weekend.
If schools are already doing this, maybe they need to train more, play more often and have better coaches. And probably less homework.

[the_bear]

Couches really are so important

[OysterOmelet]

@Quesito

Taiwan started investing in sport in 2004. The infrastructure is still bad: no good competition, no good coaches, limited to schools.
Many Taiwaneses in the Olympics train overseas

What?