The whole school criticized the gymnastics association for management failure and called on the Ministry of Sports to conduct a thorough investigation and establish a player complaint mechanism

Female gymnasts Li Jiawei and Pan Caichen from Pingtung County were originally allowed to participate in the World Championships in October this year, but the Gymnastics Association rejected it without permission from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), causing a social uproar. The National Education Industry Federation issued a statement today (9), criticizing the management failure of the Gymnastics Association, exposing long-standing institutional flaws in Taiwan's competitive sports, and calling on the Ministry of Sports to immediately investigate the Gymnastics Association's serious negligence and impose specific punishments.

Taiwan has long emphasized the need to enhance the international competitiveness of competitive sports, and the government has invested heavily in establishing a national training system, subsidizing individual sports associations, and training elite athletes. However, the true test of whether a country's competitive environment is mature is not just the number of medals, but also whether the government is willing to stand by the athletes when they qualify, encounter administrative difficulties, or system conflicts. If athletes compete to the door of the world stage, but in the end lose opportunities due to the domestic competition system, no amount of government training funds can make up for the damage caused by the system to the players.

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Last year (2025), the Table Tennis Association helped 17-year-old Ye Yitian to disqualify 17-year-old Ye Yitian from the WTT US Grand Slam without consent. This year, the Gymnastics Association case happened again, which shows that individual associations have important powers such as selection and training, national team formation, international event registration, subsidy funds and international contacts, but the players’ rights to know, participate and remedy in the entire decision-making process are often insufficient.

Lin Huirong, chairman of the National Sports Association, said that the problem of excessive concentration of power in individual sports associations and insufficient protection of players' rights and interests has long existed. Even if coaches and players are wronged, they can only keep silent for fear of being settled later, being made things difficult, or worried that they will no longer be able to participate in competitions after being targeted. If players have their rights and interests damaged, they can only appeal to the association. The association is like a player and referee, and the appeal mechanism is useless.

Lin Huirong said that the Ministry of Sports has the power of subsidy, evaluation and administrative supervision over individual sports associations. Therefore, this case should not stop at requiring the association to review, list management deficiencies or submit an improvement report. The gymnastics association's serious negligence has caused serious damage to competitive athletes and the overall competition system, and should be followed up in accordance with the relevant provisions of the National Sports Law.

The entire education industry calls on the Secretary-General of the Gymnastics Association to be replaced immediately, and the Sports Ministry should also establish a central complaint and relief channel for competitive athletes as soon as possible. For competitive athletes who have both student status and athlete status, the Ministry of Education and the Sports Ministry should establish an inter-ministerial assistance mechanism to protect the rights of athletes.