The athlete entering the stadium during the opening ceremonies.
Background
Following the Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China retained control of only the island of Taiwan and a few other minor islands.[1] After international recognition shifted to the People's Republic of China in the 1970s and under the People's Republic's One China policy, the only way the Republic of China could participate in international organizations was under a name acceptable to the People's Republic.[2] The Republic of China boycotted the Olympics, at the 1976 Summer Olympics and both Games in 1980 after not being allowed to compete under the name "Republic of China".[3] Chinese Taipei accepted the Nagoya Resolution in 1981 and first officially participated in the Olympics at the 1984 Winter Olympics.[2][3] Chinese Taipei has sent delegations to every Winter Olympic Games since, making Vancouver their eighth appearance at a Winter Olympics under that name.[4] For the second consecutive Winter Olympics, the Chinese Taipei delegation consisted of a single athlete, luger Ma Chih-hung.[5][6] Ma was chosen as the flag bearer for both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony.[7][8]
Ma Chih-hung was 24 years old at the time of the Vancouver Olympics, and had represented Chinese Taipei four years prior at the 2006 Winter Olympics.[9] The men's singles was held over 13–14 February, with two of the four runs being contested on each day.[10] On the first day, he posted run times of 50.318 seconds[11] and 50.460 seconds.[12] After the first day, he sat in 33rd place out of 38 competitors.[13] On the second day, he put up times of 51.090 seconds[14] and 50.494 seconds.[15] His total time was therefore 3 minutes and 22.362 seconds, which dropped Ma into 34th overall.[10]
