Tokyo: The Taiwanese athletes and support staff departed for the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, and a controversy erupted when world No. 1 women’s singles player, Tai Tzu Ying posted on Instagram showing herself sitting in economy class, with a caption saying “I miss Eva airline, got to sit in business class.”
Tai’s father who was very unhappy with the arrangement by the Taiwanese government voiced his dissatisfaction to Taiwanese media on Monday.
“If you couldn’t arrange the business class, please tell us in advance so that we can arrange the travel by ourselves, instead of knowing about the situation only when the athletes got on the plane,” said the father of Tai Tzu Ying.
He added that Tai has motion sickness, her family always tried to make her feel comfortable when traveling to international tournaments by booking business class.
“She could lay down comfortably in the full flatbed of business class.”
Tai’s father then responded Monday evening, saying that the most important thing for Tai right now is to win gold for Taiwan in the Olympics, he was willing to put this debacle aside for now.
“Thank’s all the media for your coverage on this. Tzu Ying has arrived in Japan safely. The next goal is to focus on the badminton court. Hope everyone could cheer for the players and coaches. I will not respond to this incident for now. Thank you for your concern and love.”
This incident also prompted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen to issue apologies to Taiwan’s Olympic delegates.
“Such an inconsiderate arrangement showed a lack of thoughtfulness to athletes representing our country, which is deeply regrettable,” said Tsai.
She called on related authorities to make the necessary arrangements to make sure athletes will be flying back to Taiwan from Tokyo in business class after competing in the Tokyo Olympics.
After Tai arrived in Japan, she and the Taiwanese athletes would live in a hotel outside of the athletes’ village, because the hotel is closer to the badminton stadium and the Taiwanese athletes could also avoid contact with too many people due to concern over COVID-19.
