Tropical Climate No Barrier to Winter Sports

LAGO DI TESERO – The sport of biathlon originates from Norway, where soldiers used it as an alternative training exercise in the military; European countries have traditionally been the most successful participants. It may, therefore, seem surprising that Chinese Taipei has two athletes competing in this discipline, Jian-Cheng Fu and Yao-Yi Wang.

Chinese Taipei has a tropical climate, which means that Winter Sports are a rarity and makes the TPE athletes’ appearance here all the more special. It goes without saying that they must train abroad, which Fu highlights, “We train in Korea and China. In Chinese Taipei you cannot train on skis because there is no snow. But I think it is a very cool sport and I enjoy it.”

Fu has only been competing in biathlon for four years, so his appearance at the Universiade is quite some achievement. He took up the sport when he was fifteen years old. It was, however, a little earlier when he indentified his potential for biathlon, as he explains, “When I was thirteen years old I was training in shooting. My coach then said you could biathlon. I said ‘Ok’, and here I am!”

As he is currently only 19 years old, this is Fu’s first experience of the Universiade. He has considerably more time as a student and hopes to compete in the future Universiades. “It would be very cool to go to Granada, and I certainly hope to be there,” he said.

Toby Fisher, FISU Young Reporter