Yang Yung-wei won a silver Olympic medal in the 60-kg judo competition on Saturday, clinching Taiwan’s first Olympic medal at the Tokyo Olympics and also the nation’s first Olympic medal in judo.
Yang defeated France’s Luka Mkheidze in the semifinals earlier on Saturday. In the finals, he was up against Naohisa Takato of Japan, a Rio 2016 bronze medalist.
When interviewed after the match, the 23-year old Paiwan indigenous judoka said receiving an Olympic medal was “something I had dreamed of, but never expected to happen in reality.” Yang also said “I won’t give up because of this, my goal is to win a gold medal.”
Taiwan has 68 athletes competing in 18 sports at the Tokyo Olympics.
Taiwan won one gold and two bronze medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It won a gold in women's weightlifting and bronzes in women's archery and weightlifting.