Ep 290 | "Decathalon" The Story of Taiwan's Greatest Olympian: My Conversation with Award-Winning Journalist Mike Chinoy

The recent Paris Olympics has just passed and may already be fading into memory. This year Team Taiwan won 2 gold medals and 5 bronze at the Olympics.

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Do you know when and who won Taiwan’s first Olympic medal?

It happened at the 1960 Rome Olympics, which was the first Summer Olympics that was televised in North America. The man who was known as the “Iron Man of Asia,” C.K. Yang won a silver medal in the decathlon. C.K. was of the Amis indigenous tribe from southeastern Taiwan. His Amis name was Maysang Kalimud, but then Japan colonized Taiwan he had a Japanese name when, and then after the Chinese Nationalists the Kuomintang lost the civil war in China to the Chinese Communist and fled to Taiwan, his father gave him a Chinese name, Yang Chuan-kwang. 

Like many Amis, he used his athletic prowess to gain status and success that might otherwise have eluded him. But not much is known about how heavily he identified as Amis.

 

The gold medal winner at the Rome Olympics was Rafer Johnson, an African American.

 

Rafer and C.K. trained together under the same coach at UCLA and then competed against each other in the decathlon at the Rome Olympics. They were not only rivals but also the best of friends.

 

Their extraordinary and unlikely friendship inspired the making of a documentary film and I sat down recently to speak with Mike Chinoy, the co-creator, co-writer, and co-producer of that film which is called "Decathlon: The CK Yang and Rafer Johnson Story,”

 

Mike Chinoy is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute and is based in Taipei. Previously, he spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, serving as the network's first Beijing bureau chief and as Senior Asia Correspondent.

 

"Decathlon: The CK Yang and Rafer Johnson Story" is currently streaming on the Taiwan Plus Docs YouTube channel.

 

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

·       Team Taiwan’s performance during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris

·       How flags and signs in the shape of Taiwan or with the word Taiwan on them were confiscated from fans during the men’s doubles badminton finals at the Paris Olympics

·       How China's state-run broadcaster CCTV cut the feed during parts of the men's badminton doubles match and did not broadcast the medal ceremony

·       Why Taiwan has to compete under the name “Chinese Taipei” at the Olympics

·       The “Iron Man of Asia”

·       The man that won Taiwan’s first Olympic medal

·       C.K. Yang was Amis and had three names, an Amis name (Maysang Kalimud), a Japanese name and a Chinese name (Yang Chuan-kwang, 楊傳廣)

·       How C.K. first met Rafer Johnson at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956

·       How C.K. and Rafer were trained by the same coach at UCLA and became close friends

·       The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C) told the government of Chiang Kai-shek that the team sent to participate at the 1960 Rome Olympics could not be called the Republic of China

·       Chiang Kai-shek almost boycotted the Olympics but didn’t because he realized that C.K. Yang could possibly win a medal and bring glory to Taiwan

·       How Taiwan competed under the name Formosa during the 1960 Rome Olympics

·       C.K. Yang was the first person with a Chinese surname to win an Olympic medal

·       At the opening ceremony of the 1960 Rome Olympics Rafer Johnson was the first African American to carry the American flag at the Olympics

·       At the opening ceremony of the 1960 Rome Olympics, the Taiwan team marched in carrying a placard that said under protest, which was the first overt political protest by a team in Olympics history

·       Where the idea for "Decathlon: The CK Yang and Rafer Johnson Story" came from

·       How Mike’s co-creator, co-writer, and co-producer, John Krich sought out, befriended and interviewed C.K. Yang in 2006

·       How Mike met and befriended Rafer Johnson and C.K.’s widow Daisy in Los Angeles

·       Taiwanese Canadian film director of "Decathlon: The CK Yang and Rafer Johnson Story," Frank W. Chen also directed “Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story”

·       How C.K. Yang, Rafer Johnson and athletes have become political symbols

·       How C.K. Yang and Rafer Johnson were intense athletic rivals and close friends

·       The close personal friendship between C.K. Yang and Rafer Johnson

·       How C.K. Yang and Rafer Johnson had the same coach, Ducky Drake at UCLA

·       How C.K. Yang and Rafer Johnson joked that they were the “Two-Man United Nations”

·       How C.K. Yang’s story tells the story of Taiwan in an unconventional way

·       Why C.K. was sent to UCLA to train for the Olympics

·       The 1958 Kinmen Matsu Crisis (aka The 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis)

·       How C.K. Yang and Rafer Johnson’s coach, Ducky Drake showed no favoritism

·       When U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Rafer was next to him, Rafer grabbed the assassin, tackled him and grabbed the gun

·       Rafer’s involvement in the Special Olympics

·       What happened to C.K. at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

·       C.K. later became the coach of the Taiwan track team for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada

·       Why the team from Taiwan was barred from participating in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal

·       Rafer Johnson lit the flame at the 1984 Olympic games in L.A.

·       How C.K. went into politics briefly in Taiwan, switching from one party to another

·       The Iron Man house that the government of Taiwan built for C.K.

·       How statues of C.K. are in a locked fourth floor room of the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung

·       There cover of Sports Illustrated magazine in 1963 with the headline “ C.K. Yang, the world's greatest athlete.”

·       The tremendous sportsmanship and loyalty that C.K. and Rafer exemplify

·       C.K.’s performance at 1954 Asian Games in Manilla

·       The use of animation in "Decathlon: The CK Yang and Rafer Johnson Story,"

·       The National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung

·       How the film addresses the Taiwan, China conflict, and the fight for social justice and equality in the United States;  64 years later the world is still wrestling with these issues

·       Mike’s future projects

 

Related Links:

https://talkingtaiwan.com/my-conversation-with-mike-chinoy-award-winning-journalist-on-his-new-film-decathalon-ep-290/