Ku Chin-shui (, 15 January 1960 – 25 May 2016) was an Amis Taiwanese

decathlete The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...

and

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

er. He medaled for

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

at the

Asian Athletics Championships The Asian Athletics Championships is an event organized by the Asian Athletics Association. History The competition courted controversy with the IAAF when political in-fighting arose after Israel was excluded from participation in 1977. That e ...

six times, winning one gold medal, two silver medals, and three bronze medals. At the

1990 Asian Games The 1990 Asian Games also known as the XI Asiad and the 11th Asian Games ( zh, c=第十一届亚洲运动会, p=Dì shíyī jiè yàzhōu yùndònghuì), were held from September 22 to October 7, 1990, in Beijing, China. This was the first Asian Ga ...

, he earned a silver medal in the decathlon. Upon retiring from athletics, he became a

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

teacher.Alt URL
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Post-athletic life

On 24 August 1999, an explosion on board a landed Uni Air plane, Flight 873, injured 28 people and killed Ku Jing-chi (C: 古金池, P: ''Gǔ Jīnchí''), the older brother of Ku Chin-shui. A report from the

Aviation Safety Council The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB, ) is an independent government agency of the Republic of China responsible for major transportation accidents on aviation, railways, waterways, and highways in Taiwan. The council is headquartered in ...

(ASC) said a motorbike battery jostled, igniting gasoline in bottles in an overhead compartment. Prosecutors accused Ku Chin-shui of asking his nephew to bring gasoline on the flight. Ku was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Upon appeal, the sentence was shortened to seven and a half years. After a fifth retrial, he was declared not guilty. The ASC had commissioned an analysis from the

Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST; ) is a Taiwanese state owned corporation, formerly part of the Republic of China Ministry of National Defense's Armaments Bureau, which is active in the development, manufacturi ...

, which said the ASC's simulation environment differed from that of the aircraft which had exploded." The court case caused Ku to lose his teaching position, and he worked part-time at a steel factory until 2008, when he returned to teaching full-time. Ku was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and died of

plasma cell leukemia Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a plasma cell dyscrasia, i.e. a disease involving the malignant degeneration of a subtype of white blood cells called plasma cells. It is the terminal stage and most aggressive form of these dyscrasias, constituting 2 ...

on 25 May 2016 at

National Taiwan University Hospital The National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH; ) is a medical facility located in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei, Taiwan. It started operations under Japanese rule in Daitōtei (today's Dadaocheng) on 18 June 1895, and moved to its present ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

. Aged 56 at the time of his death, Ku is survived by his wife and two children.

International competitions

* This performance was calculated using the 1977 IAAF scoring tables and in the modern 1985 IAAF tables, is worth 7614 pointsAthletics at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's Decathlon
Sports Reference. Retrieved 2019-08-21.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ku, Chin-shui 1960 births 2016 deaths People from Hualien County Taiwanese decathletes Taiwanese male pole vaulters Taiwanese male athletes Olympic decathletes Olympic athletes of Taiwan Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Asian Games silver medalists for Chinese Taipei Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Asian Games Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games National Taiwan Normal University alumni Amis people Taiwanese schoolteachers Taiwanese prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Taiwan Deaths from cancer in Taiwan Deaths from leukemia

Post-athletic life

International competitions

See also

References

External links