This is the first time I encountered a Phil Edwards video, and I think he's cool.
He also reminds me of Harry Anderson from the original Night Court series. I never really saw Night Court, but I love him in Cheers. Star World once ran Cheers around 10:30 in the morning in Southeast Asia and it sucks that his swindler role had a really limited run.
Anyway, I never knew Chinese Taipei debuted in the Olympics as Japan. Aside from the Mao Zedong versus Chiang Kai Shek history, I know Chinese Taipei for their annual staging of the Jones Cup. They have two teams playing representatives from the Philippines and all over the world. Nowadays, we know the Jones Cup for Mighty Sports or its current name, Strong Group Athletics.
And like Mainland China, they will do everything to cook the games to their favor.
Again, this is simply their advantage as the host team.
In the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China (which happened in 2023 because of the global shutdown,) China won 383 medals, 201 of which were gold medals. Chinese Taipei went home with 19 gold medals (67 all-in-all,) which is almost five times the gold medals the Philippines got in the games.
If we see in the news of China bullying Taiwan in their airspace, or whatever shit they are doing in the West Philippine Sea waters, the athletes are safe here. In fact, Cheng Chih-lung, the handsome Taiwanese player known by a lot of sports fans in the '90s (I think Pinoys call him the Taiwanese Vince Hizon,) played with a rising star named Yao Ming for the Shanghai Sharks in 1999.
The Olympics is an event held every four years. This is why for the sake of the athletes, politics must back off. We hate that athletes are at times cocky and snobbish, and are given a lot just because they lucked out at a young age. However, they have to get the best results for them because speed and power are about to expire in a couple of years.
I know the IOC imposed sanctions on Russia for attacking Ukraine. And while the entire Russia is blasting this, it doubly sucks for the athletes who had the chance to win a gold medal. I know Russia fought under a different name in 2021 because of doping, but at least they were able to participate. Their ban (or boycott if you want to be political about this) is important in our story because Russia had a medal tally of 2 golds, 4 silvers, and 4 bronzes in gymnastics in the Tokyo Games. One of their gymnasts, Denis Ablyazin, just missed out on a gold medal in the vault event.
This is important, considering that Carlos Yulo COULD have had a bronze medal in 2021 if Russia just boycotted the games altogether.
Anyway, here's Phil Edwards' vlog.